We Called Him "Billy Bob" Around Here...

You may be wondering, "Who is 'Billy Bob'?"  


Well, it is the actor famous for his role as Reverend Alden on “Little House on the Prairie”, Robert William “Dabbs” Greer.  He was raised here in Anderson, Missouri and was called, “Billy Bob” by locals.

On April 8, 2014, we published our blog post about this local hero, and our research for that post has set us off on a journey.  A few weeks ago we went to Peace Valley Cemetery to take pictures of Robert William Greer’s final resting place.  We discovered that his date of death was absent from the headstone. Being curious, I did some calling around, hoping that it was just an oversight. I found that Dabbs’ final resting was completed by power of attorney of a funeral home in California, as he was the only child of Randall and Bernice Greer and there are no close relatives. It seems this responsibility did not include having the date of death placed on the headstone after his passing on April 28, 2007. 

On May 5, 2007 the town of Anderson, Mo. had a wonderful memorial and placement of his ashes.  They placed a memorial stone in the area park and named a natural pool after him.  Ozark Funeral Home, Premier Memorial of Anderson, and many locals did a wonderful job of laying him to rest.  Talking to these same people have been very helpful in my search for information. It was while reading over materials provided to me by a local business that I came to find out that he was called “Billy Bob” by the people from this area when he lived here.

We've been doing a lot of note-taking while gathering info from local people.

  Now that you're caught up on our journey so far, here's where we're at.


Grandma’s Attic would like to have Mr. Greer’s date of death put on his headstone as well as having a commemorative bench placed close by his grave site as a memorial to: William Robert “Billy Bob”-“Dabbs” Greer, with one of his quotes inscribed on the top, back:  
"Every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead."   
as well as having this picture of him etched on the bench. 

Photo graciously lent to us by http://jimnolt.com/

Here's where you come in!


WE NEED YOUR HELP 
and believed you would like to be a part of this project. 

The cost of this project will be $3,071.55, which includes;  
the inscription of the date of death on the headstone, 
the cost of the bench with inscribed words, 
and the placement of the bench. 


These services will be completed by Premier Memorial, of Anderson, Missouri. 
Thank you, Premier Memorial for donating the slab on which the bench will be placed.

Digital Mock-up of the bench to be purchased

If you are interested in helping place the bench and get the date of death put on Robert William Greer’s headstone, here’s how you can help:

-Donations can be made at Grandma’s Attic, in Anderson, Mo. 
There will be a jar available for cash donations.  
 
-We are also able to take credit card donations 
in store or over the phone.

-If you would like to send donations via mail, please send them to:

Grandma’s Attic,
Attn: Billy Bob,
4712 Goldfinch Road
Joplin, Mo. 64804


 
For more information about this project, 
please email [email protected] 
or call Grandma’s Attic at 417-845-8000.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey of discovering more regarding the life of Mr. Greer and paying our respects to him. If you’d like to read what we have posted about Dabbs’ life previously, please click on the links at the bottom of this article to read our recent posts regarding his life. 
 
Please feel free to leave a comment below, as we’d love to hear any stories/information that you might have to share about Robert William Greer, as well as childhood memories of watching his many movies and TV shows.
 

After all, we’ve surely all seen this face on our TV screen at some time or other… :)

For more on Dabbs' life, visit the links below:

http://www.grandmasattic-antiques.com/1/post/2014/04/dabbs-greer-anderson-mo.html



http://www.grandmasattic-antiques.com/1/post/2014/04/camp-crowder-creators.html