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William “Billy” Arthur Barnett was born December 27, 1937, at 1103 Slater Street in Eads, at the family home of his parents, Joe Barnett and Madelyn (Johnson) Barnett. Billy was the middle child of three children, having two sisters - Gloria, born in 1936, and Kay, born in 1939.

Billy grew up in Eads during the post-War era that was iconically the hiatus of American life. He was a small boy during World War II, and his life was never affected by the atrocities in the world as his parents managed to provide anything the children needed. His father was a railroad man, and his mother taught dance, baton twirling, and was heavily involved in her daughters’ school activities. Being a talented seamstress, Madelyn stayed busy volunteering in the Rainbow Girls, cheerleading, dance troupes, and 4-H.

Billy was an all-American boy. As a town kid, he earned enough money as a paper boy in fifth grade to buy a baby colt that he cared for and trained in the family’s backyard. A lover of animals, and particularly horses, Billy taught himself to ride and began to work as a cowboy while in high school.

Life as a teenager during the 1950s saw Billy and his best friends, including Keith Uhland and Gordon Buck, focused on their hot rod cars, playing pin ball and pool at the Eads Pool Hall on Maine Street, and dating. In 1955, as a senior, Billy met a pretty brunette with snapping brown eyes at the Plains Theatre in Eads and fell in love. He and Lucy Schneider, who was just a freshman from Kit Carson at the time, dated during that year, despite her mother’s consternation, before Billy graduated and moved to Pueblo where he held a job at the City of Pueblo.

He soon moved to Farmington, New Mexico, with Dan Jackson, where they were employed at a meat processing company. It was there, in very rough living conditions, Billy learned how to butcher meat, a skill that would earn him some extra money for many years.

By May of 1958, Billy was back in Eads, and Lucy was walking across the graduation stage in Kit Carson. They were married June 1, 1958, at the Methodist Church in Eads. Billy and Lucy had two children – Marty, who was born in March 1959, and Suzette who came along in September of 1961.

Billy finally achieved a life-long dream of living in the country with horses and cattle when the family moved to the Ross McNeil place, located just southeast of Haswell, in 1958. While living in Haswell, Lucy made many friends as the young housewives of the quaint community helped each other learn how to cook, entertain, and care for their nice homes and rambunctious children, while Billy helped the Jackson boys occasionally at the Eads Locker Plant as well as working the cattle on the ranch.

In 1966, the family moved to Harry Owen’s place located northwest of Eads. The kids attended school at Eads while Lucy and Billy began their many years together working with horses and cattle on the ranch.

It was during these many years that Billy helped dozens of his neighbors with the annual brandings. Neighbors helped neighbors, friends came to friends’ brandings, and while the men did the branding, the kids would run wild daring each other to do something dangerous, and the wives prepared and served the most amazing meals. The traditions of those brandings still go on today as now Billy Barnett’s children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren continue to help out their neighbors during branding time.

It was in June of 1971 when a lightning strike hit a gas line causing their home to explode and burn to the ground. The family barely got out in time, but lost everything. The communities of Eads, Haswell, and Kit Carson rallied together for the family and, with their help, the Barnetts persevered during that dark time.

As the kids grew and stepped out on their own, Billy and Lucy enjoyed many years of owning and working with racehorses trained by (Larry) Frazee Racing Stables. They would travel all over this side of the country - anywhere the horses were running - with Larry and Arnitha Frazee, Merle Frazee, Keith and Bobby Uhland, Gordon and Marie Buck, and Lloyd and Esther Philpy, among many others. They were so dedicated to their horses that one time Billy and Lucy and six other people piled into a car and drove to Chicago to watch their horse run. When they got there, the horse was scratched for some reason, so they drove all the way back home. When they got home, they learned the horse was now going to run the next day, so of course they loaded back in the car and drove all night back to Chicago.

In 1980, the Barnetts moved to their current ranch located west of Eads. Those were some of the best years of their lives as they worked the cattle and became very involved with the activities of seven grandchildren – all of whom attended Eads High School. They gained a special friend in 1984 when their grandson, Chad, was born. For the rest of Billy’s life, Chad visited him and Lucy nearly every day, and they all traveled around the area in their little Toyota pickup, with Billy and Lucy in the front, and Chad and the current dog riding along in the pickup bed.

Those years featured a slower time in life where Billy and Lucy thoroughly enjoyed going to the lakes south of Eads with their children and grandchildren. It was during those long and glorious summers that hundreds of precious memories were made as Billy took his barefoot, tanned, tousle-haired grandkids fishing, for boat rides, watched them water ski and jet ski, and helped them build the best campfires ever to cook a s’more. 

In later years, Billy and Lucy made darn sure they attended every game and school event for their great-grandchildren clear up to the very end of football and volleyball season this year when they came to their games despite it being very difficult to do so.

Billy, at the age of 87, passed away early Wednesday morning, January 8, 2025, at Weisbrod Health hospital in Eads following a short illness affected by a cancer diagnosis.

He was preceded in death by his parents; sisters; brothers-in-law, Carl Bellini, Benny Gibbs, Mel Richardson, Earl Garner, and Ralph Bullock; sisters-in-law, Frances Jane, Marilyn Gibbs Bullock, and Teena Smith; and nephews, Brett Gibbs, Carl Bellini, Jr., and Mike Garner.

Billy Barnett is survived by his wife, Lucy Barnett of the family home in Eads; children, Marty (Betsy) Barnett of Eads, and Suzette (Barry) Koch of Kit Carson; grandchildren, Kyle (Whitney) Barnett of Eads, Chad Barnett of Eads, Meredith (JC) Cordova of Eads, Dain (Sarah) Barnett of Edmond, Oklahoma, Morrell Koch of Eads, Drew (Frances) Koch of Fort Collins, and Jordan (Brady) Buck of Wray. He is also survived by great grandchildren, Reese Barnett, Will Barnett, Luke Barnett, Dylan Barnett, Chael Cordova, Cree Cordova, Brooks Buck, Bash Buck, Wyatt Barnett, and Nolan Koch; several nieces and nephews; sister-in-law, Connie Bellini of West Palm Beach, Florida; and brother-in-law, Dick Smith of Wray.

Funeral services for Billy Barnett were held January 11, 2025, at the Praise Community Church in Eads with pastors Lane and Deborah Gooden officiating. Burial was at the Eads Cemetery in Eads.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Bill Barnett Memorial Fund in care of GN Bank, PO Box 847, Eads, CO 81036.

Arrangements were under the direction of Brown Funeral Home in Eads.