Billy Carl Crowell, born Sept. 9, 1923, will be sorely missed by hundreds of the lives he touched during his life-long love affair with Newton County.

Mr. B.C. was a lot of things to a lot of different people — coach, mentor, community leader — but what he was to everybody, was a good friend.  

His list of accomplishments is staggering. B.C. served in the Navy during World War II, played for a New York Yankees farm team, worked as the athletic director for Bibb Manufacturing and coached for schools in Porterdale from 1948 to 1970, served on the Porterdale City Council for 10 years, founded the Newton County Recreation Commission and so much more. He won countless awards and recognitions, but what he considered his greatest rewards were the successes of those he helped.

B.C. loved his hometown of Porterdale and pride  in it and desire to see it prosper brought him back to it after some time in New York.

He was truly the definition of a giving spirit and he kept a boyish grin and glimmer in his eye until the very end.

It’s hard to think about attending Kiwanis or Elks club meetings, services at First Presbyterian Church and visiting the Rec Department without seeing him greeting folks and stealing kisses.

Everyday we lose another member of America’s greatest generation and B.C. Crowell was at the pinnacle of that group.

However, when men like Billy Carl Crowell go home to the Lord, they are never truly lost because they live on not only in the brick and mortar monuments they made possible to build, but also in the monuments they build in people’s hearts.

May God bless his soul and the souls of the rest of us who must go forward without him.