Author Topic: Obituary | Billie Jean Greathouse  (Read 7712 times)

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Obituary | Billie Jean Greathouse
« on: May 17, 2006, 01:01:11 PM »
http://www.theeagle.com/community/051505greathouse.php

Updated May 15, 2005 6:30 AM  Ex-KBTX host Greathouse dies By MELISSA SULLIVAN Eagle Staff Writer        
     
Billie Greathouse was remembered Saturday as the type of person who included everyone and made others feel like parts of a big family.  Greathouse would invite others, for example, to celebrate holidays with her family, daughter Vivian Moss said Saturday from Midland.  “Enthusiastic would be a good way to describe her,” Moss said.  Greathouse, 80, who lived in Bryan during the 1960s, died May 4 at her home in Honolulu. She had pancreatic cancer.   A memorial service was held Monday in Hawaii.  After receiving a bachelor’s degree in music from Texas State College for Women in Denton, she earned a master’s degree from Sam Houston State University. She taught music at Fannin Elementary School in Bryan and was a musical director for summer shows at Texas A&M University.  “She didn’t just teach notes on the page,” Moss said. “She taught the whole person. Her philosophy is, you teach the whole person because singing is about communication and sharing, and I felt my mom has always done that.”  For nearly a decade, Greathouse hosted a daytime show on KBTX-TV titled Town Talk on which she interviewed local newsmakers and dignitaries.  She also served as a choir director at First Methodist Church in Bryan and gave private music lessons to community residents. Many of her students continued to perform on Broadway or in an opera.  “I know I am going to honor her,” Moss said. “I am a music teacher, and I know whatever I do, I will honor her by doing my music.”  • Melissa Sullivan’s e-mail address is melissa.sullivan@theeagle.com <mailto:melissa.sullivan@theeagle.com>.