TRIMBLE, Billy Joe (Bill), Sr.

The Verde Independent, Cottonwood, AZ February 01, 2006 Bill Trimble Sr. On Jan. 24, 2006, just before midnight, Billy Joe (Bill) Trimble Sr., of Cottonwood, died after a three-month illness. Bill was born in Wellington, Texas, May 13, 1927. He was a World War II veteran and member of the 82nd Airborne Division. He was present at the trials of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, Germany, at the end of WWII. After his military obligation was completed, he returned to Texas, where he worked drilling water and oil wells. In the early 1950s while working in the well fields of Wyoming, he met and married his first wife Margie Baker. They moved back to Texas and started a family, having five sons. In 1959 Bill and family moved to Amarillo, Texas. Bill along with his brother James and brother-in-law Lawrence Anderson all worked at the U.S. Air Force Base in Amarillo. In 1967, the base was closed and the three families moved to Arizona. James, Lawrence and their families, moved to the air bases in the Phoenix area, and Bill and his family to Flagstaff, where Bill worked at the Navajo Army Depot, until the death of Margie and retirement from the civil service in 1971. He met Patricia Vermande and the two were later married. Bill loved to garden, fish with family and friends and sit on the front steps of his home and watch his grandchildren and great-grandchildren play in the front yard. He is preceded in death by his parents George Hamilton Trimble and Ruth Trimble-Dodson, older brother James Trimble, his first wife Margie Ann Baker-Trimble and son James E. (Jim) Trimble. He is survived by his wife Patricia Trimble; sisters Eunice Winegeart and Bess Anderson; sons Billy Trimble Jr. (Hollie), Robert Trimble (Diane), Harold Trimble (Angela) and Frank Trimble (Kim); stepchildren Steve Vermande, Debbie Smith, David Vermande and Lori Felx; 22 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. A visitation will be 6-8 p.m., Feb. 2 at Norvel Owens Mortuary, 914 E. Route 66, Flagstaff. Funeral Services will be 10 a.m. Feb. 3, also at the Norvel Owens Mortuary.