Billy Joe Carithers

Billy Joe Carithers, known to most folks as Bill J Carithers; Born March 2, 1937 passed from this earth on April 3, 2025. Leaving Margaret, his wife of 66 years, in the home in Mount Juliet Tennessee, one son Steven William Carithers, wife Mitzi of Crestview Florida, and granddaughter Constance May Carithers of Kingsport Tennessee, one daughter Lisa Lyn King, husband Mike, and daughter Mackenzie Amelia King of Gladstone, MO, a sister, Shirley Williams and her husband Rockie of Hutchison Kansas, and a brother Jim Carithers of Hutchinson Kansas. There will be no public service. No flowers are necessary, any honors please send to the American Heart Association. Bill is to be cremated with disposition of ash remains determined by family.

The custom in obituaries is to list the accomplishments that determine a person's life. I have chosen to tell the truth. No one gains fame, fortune or a degree of success by themselves, it's the people we encounter on the way. The friends, associates, and even strangers we encounter as we move through life are the real engines of our success. From 11 years old the Emmons, Wally and Francis, started it all when they asked my parents to let me work part time for them as a "printers devil" at "The Times". Here I got printers ink in my blood, from there until retirement in 2009 was spent in or close to the graphic arts trade. Either in commercial printing in early manhood, and later the wholesale paper industry and finally in the envelope business. All along the way people taught me the skills needed but always I remember these people as the ones who gave me all the successes I had or could ask. Thank you, every friend and yes, even enemies, who made my trip a wonderful journey.