A funeral service for Billy Joe “B.J.” Thompson, age 84 of Leonard, is scheduled for Saturday, March 20, at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Leonard with Charles Wrenn officiating. Burial will follow in Leonard Cemetery. B.J. will in state at Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home on Friday, March 19, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a visitation will be held at First Baptist Church on Saturday, from 9-11 a.m. prior to the funeral service.

B.J. entered this life on Sept. 12, 1936, in Paragould, Ark., the son of Tedford Lee Thompson and Juanita Mae Anderson Thompson. He graduated from Greene County Tech High School in Paragould in 1955. He worked for his uncle doing carpentry work, but then moved to Texas in 1964 and went to work for Collins Radio Company at that time. He was promoted to the maintenance department and was their main carpenter until his retirement in December of 1991.
B.J. married Joan Clements on July 3, 1971, at the First United Methodist Church in Mesquite. They lived in Garland from 1972 until 1983 when they bought the farm in Leonard where they lived until present day.

After his retirement from Collins Radio, B.J. worked a little on the farm, but also took up training and running bird dogs. He joined the Lone Star Texas division of the National Shoot to Retrieve Association (NSTRA) and later judged trials for the NSTRA in the Texas and Oklahoma regions. After his health began declining, he retired dog training and took up fishing in his spare time until 2017. He and Joan were members at Kings Trail Cowboy Church. B.J. went to be with the Lord on Friday, March 12, 2021.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years: Joan Ann Clements Thompson; three sons, Teddy “Clark” Thompson and wife, D’Ann, of Allen, Timmy “Craig” Thompson and wife, Carol, of Kingston, and Barry Wayne Thompson and wife, Lori of Parker; granddaughters, Rachel D’Ann Farmer and husband, Layne, of Plano, and Dr. Brittany Michelle Berry and husband, Tyler, of Olney; great-granddaughter, Sophie Farmer of Plano; sister-in-law, Sue Thompson of Conway, Ark.; nephew, Brian Thompson and wife, Robin, of Simpsonville, S.C.; niece; Christy Cooper and husband, Shane, of Conway, Ark., and a host of other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Tedford and Juanita, and his brother, Kenneth Wayne Thompson.

Pallbearers will be Joel Nash, Brett Wren, Jeff Bowen, Layne Farmer, David Weiss, and Tyler Berry.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Leonard Volunteer Fire Department, C/O Billy Watson, PO Box 1169, Leonard, TX 75452; or to Disabled American Veterans, P.O. Box 14301, Cincinnati, Ohio 45250.