Billie Alford Huddleston

Billie Alford Huddleston, 85, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, passed away on May 16, 2020. She was born on June 6, 1934 in Snyder, Texas to Florence Hicks Alford and E. Perry Alford. She is survived by: Kim Huddleston and Emmy Harvey of Las Cruces and Jim and Debra Huddleston of New York City; her sister-in-law, Judy Huddleston Shaw of Ruidoso, New Mexico; her nephews, Gary Pitner (Linda) of Granbury, Texas, Jeff Pitner of Lubbock, Texas and Chris Pitner of Lubbock, Texas; and her grandchildren, Hailey Huddleston and John Huddleston, both of New York City. Billie, who was raised in Snyder, Texas, met Ellis Huddleston, the love of her life, at Snyder Junior High School when she was 12 years old. She and Ellis got married on August 12, 1955 and were married for over 57 years until Ellis’ death in 2013. After they got married, Billie and Ellis moved to Ithaca, New York, where Billie was the secretary to the president of Mohawk Airlines and an occasional stewardess. After moving back to Lubbock in 1960, Billie served as the President of the Panhellenic Counsel at Texas Tech University, the President of the Faculty Wives at Texas Tech and was a proud member of the Delta Zeta sorority. Billie worked as a real estate agent in Lubbock and, after the family moved to Las Cruces in 1974, she became a respected and successful agent in Las Cruces until she retired in 2001. As an agent, Billie met many people who became some of her life-long friends. During their marriage, Billie loved traveling the world, as well as going fishing with Ellis. Among their travels, the couple spent a year in Hawaii in 1966, lived in Senegal for over a year in 1987-1988, traveled for several months circumnavigating the globe in 1999, and frequently went up to New York to visit Jim and his family. Billie was a genuine lady and hostess extraordinaire, deeply kind and loving; she never said a negative word about anyone and always focused on the positive. Her warmth was engaging and she had an uncanny ability to strike up a conversation with anyone, even strangers. She also had tremendous inner strength, beating breast cancer in 1972 and colon cancer in 1988. She was proud of how far she had come from where she had grown up, enjoyed life to the fullest, and took great pride in her husband, children, and grandchildren. Billie was the matriarch of the Huddleston family and will be deeply missed.

Services will be held graveside at Ira Cemetery in Ira, Texas on Friday, May 22 ^nd at 4:30pm, where Billie will be laid to rest next to her beloved Ellis.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to the Dr. Ellis Huddleston Scholarship Fund at the NMSU Foundation; PO Box 30001, MSC 3590; Las Cruces, NM 88003.