I saw the banner in a front yard in Bay Minette, Alabama, so we stopped. The sign on the front door read to go to the back door, so I walked around the back of the house. A lady came to the door and I asked if there had been a parade or if Mr. Billy lived there. She said he lived there and I asked if I would be able to talk with him. The lady went back inside and a couple of minutes later, Mr. Billy came outside. Mr. Billy, last name “Mills,” said he turned 100 on May 30th. For his birthday, Mr. Billy said there was a celebration where “everybody was old” in downtown and he shook a lot of hands.

Born in Tuscaloosa, his dad owned a lumber yard in Moundville. Mr. Billy began flying at 14 years old and tells me that at one time was the youngest person with a pilot’s license in the country at just 16 years old! Serving in the Air Force during WWII, he was a flight instructor in various places around the country. After the war, Mr. Billy went back to working with his dad in the lumber yard.

Oddly enough, I actually did not mean to end up in Bay Minette, but I never would’ve seen the banner or met Mr. Billy Mills, so it was well worth it.

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