Billie Rochford

Billie Rochford's obituary was so short, pathetic and sad that I thought I'd write one here. She died May 3, 2016, just 20 days shy of her 100th birthday.
Billie was an amazing woman who had an interesting and even secret life before we all knew her on Vanderburg Street in Gary, Ind. To us she was Ollie's wife, a sweet woman, "aunt" and neighbor who smiled a lot and spoke with a slight southern drawl. To Hitler, she was probably more than a headache.
She was born in Rutherford, Tenn., on May 23, 1916, as "Billie B. Johns." There is no mention of her father's name in any of the records, and while in Tennessee "Billie B" lived with her mom, grandparents (Hettie and William Akin, both born in 1866) and stepbrother Clifton D. Johns.
She then moved to Longview, Texas, with her mom (Bessie Akin-Johns-Nisbitt, born in 1894 - she lived to be over 100) and stepdad (Joe Nisbitt), who was 15 years older than her mom. Billie graduated from high school there in 1935, and after she graduated she changed her name to Billie J. Nisbitt.
In high school in Texas, Billie was in the choral club, little theater club and tennis club. She worked as a secretary clerk in a bank after high school and continued to live with her mom Bessie and stepdad Joe.
In her 20s, because of her extraordinary memory and talents with figures, places, names and numbers, Billie was recruited out of her job at the bank and into the women's intelligence corps. Both during and after WWII she served as a spy for the U.S. against the German enemy. She even traveled to Europe.
In 1945, at 29, she married Ollie Rochford, who was 31 at the time. She met him while he was stationed in Texas in the Army. In 1948, they moved to downtown Gary, where Billie worked as a bookkeeper. In 1951, they moved to Vanderburg Street.
Billie was sharp as a tack and had a photographic memory, which served her well as a WWII spy. It certainly served her well in the bridge games she played with the neighbors on Vanderburg Street. Billie knew everything about everyone on our street (and she seemed to love us all, even my sister Nora Glenn, who was a terror) and yet we knew very little about her real life.
There was so much more to Billie than we knew - the women spies in WWII took unbelievable risks - and what was it like growing up with a mother who had been divorced in the 19-teens in Tennessee?
She never had any kids of her own, so all of us kids on Vanderburg Street were, in a way, hers.
I wish that I had spent more time talking to her when I had had the chance.
May she rest in peace and may we all remember the real Billie Johns Nisbitt Rochford for a long time to come.
Mary Beth Glenn
meg12@humboldt.edu