The son of Benjamin Franklin Clay and Josie Adell Rawlins, Bill married Mary Geneva Hatcher 17 Jun 1949. They had five children together: Patricia Ann (1950), William Ralph (1952), Joseph Michael (1953), Barry Lee (1954), and Mary Jane (1955). They divorced, and Bill later married, divorced, and remarried Doris Bacon, who shot and killed him in their home just after midnight 29 December 1979, claiming self-defense. There was no proof, and no one in his family has ever believed it, but she was not charged.
For a long time after he died, all I could remember was that he and I had been at his mother's house that Friday afternoon. I was a kid and stayed with her on weekdays, and he frequently stopped by just to chat. The last thing he said to me was, "I'll see you soon, cutie pie." It sort of haunted me how quickly even the vaguest of plans can change. No one ever refers to him as simply Bill but always as "Bill Clay." His kid brother, Johnny, was fond of saying, "You know Bill Clay. He loved his Schlitz Malt Liquor, and he could sell ice to the Eskimos."
For a long time after he died, all I could remember was that he and I had been at his mother's house that Friday afternoon. I was a kid and stayed with her on weekdays, and he frequently stopped by just to chat. The last thing he said to me was, "I'll see you soon, cutie pie." It sort of haunted me how quickly even the vaguest of plans can change. No one ever refers to him as simply Bill but always as "Bill Clay." His kid brother, Johnny, was fond of saying, "You know Bill Clay. He loved his Schlitz Malt Liquor, and he could sell ice to the Eskimos."
The son of Benjamin Franklin Clay and Josie Adell Rawlins, Bill married Mary Geneva Hatcher 17 Jun 1949. They had five children together: Patricia Ann (1950), William Ralph (1952), Joseph Michael (1953), Barry Lee (1954), and Mary Jane (1955). They divorced, and Bill later married, divorced, and remarried Doris Bacon, who shot and killed him in their home just after midnight 29 December 1979, claiming self-defense. There was no proof, and no one in his family has ever believed it, but she was not charged.
For a long time after he died, all I could remember was that he and I had been at his mother's house that Friday afternoon. I was a kid and stayed with her on weekdays, and he frequently stopped by just to chat. The last thing he said to me was, "I'll see you soon, cutie pie." It sort of haunted me how quickly even the vaguest of plans can change. No one ever refers to him as simply Bill but always as "Bill Clay." His kid brother, Johnny, was fond of saying, "You know Bill Clay. He loved his Schlitz Malt Liquor, and he could sell ice to the Eskimos."
For a long time after he died, all I could remember was that he and I had been at his mother's house that Friday afternoon. I was a kid and stayed with her on weekdays, and he frequently stopped by just to chat. The last thing he said to me was, "I'll see you soon, cutie pie." It sort of haunted me how quickly even the vaguest of plans can change. No one ever refers to him as simply Bill but always as "Bill Clay." His kid brother, Johnny, was fond of saying, "You know Bill Clay. He loved his Schlitz Malt Liquor, and he could sell ice to the Eskimos."
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