July 24, 1938 – September 27, 2021
Billie Jean was born in Winona, Mississippi in 1938. She was born with a progressive eye disease but retained a significant amount of usable vision throughout most of her life. In her early twenties, she had a sufficient degree of vision such that she was hired as a hostess at the Playboy Club, an experience she wrote about in “The Braille Forum.” In either the late sixties or early seventies, she immigrated to the UK, married her first husband, Roger Hill, and adopted two children, Thomas and Caroline. In the early eighties she returned to Mississippi and accepted a position as the executive director of Mississippi's radio reading service.
In 1987, Billie Jean relocated to northern Virginia to pursue her relationship with Raymond (Bud) Keith whom she married in 1996. This relocation facilitated her greater involvement with ACB at both the national and local levels. She served as an appointed member of the ACB Board of Publications from 1991-1995, wrote the "Here and There" column from 2000-2003, became an ACB life member in 2002, and served on the ACB board from 2004-2012. For a time, she shared the membership development staff position with Barbara Hayes beginning in 1998. She was a fixture on the board of the NOVA Council of the Blind from the late eighties until Bud's passing and her deteriorating health compelled her return to Mississippi.
Outside of her ACB activities, Billie Jean always aspired to be a writer, a goal she ultimately achieved with her self-published autobiographically based novel, "A Kiss for a Yankee Dime."
Billie Jean was a kind, compassionate, thoughtful, and classy lady, with an infectious laugh and a zest for life. ACB is a richer organization for having had the benefit of her many years of dedicated service.