Background
Lemons was born to Wayne H. Lemons (born 1937) and Verlene Lemons in Tyler, the seat of Smith County in East Texas.
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Billie Lemons
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He was reared in Pampa, the seat of Gray County in the Texas Panhandle, where he graduated in 1973 from Pampa High School. From 1973 to 1977, he attended Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University in College Station on a football scholarship.
Career
Lemons made the second team All-Southwest Conference and was honorable mention for two years as an All-American. TAMU was Southwestern Conference champions in 1976, his senior year on the team Thereafter, he signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Browns, but was quickly released.
Lemons received degrees in psychology and sociology.
Lemons proclaimed his conversion to Jesus Christ at the age of eight, and he was called to the ministry in 1972, while he was still in high school. He was also a certified paraprofessional while working in the schools in Pampa and Borger with physical and mentally handicapped children who have violent tendencies.
At TAMU, he was active in "Aggies for Christ" and went on mission trips to Hawaii, Thailand, and Japan. From 1978 to 1981, Lemons attended Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock under minister Cline Paden.
His father, Wayne, has been preaching since 1961 and is based at Plainview, the seat of Hale County north of Lubbock.
His widow, Janet Conaway Lemons, is a certified pharmacy technician who holds a bachelor"s degree in social work. She is employed at the Children"s Home in Lubbock, where she is a recruiter of foster care and adoption. Lemons also addressed civic groups.
In 2006, he keynoted the Martin Luther King ceremony at South Plains College in Levelland, the seat of Hockley County west of Lubbock.
Lemons stressed that King did not want people to be judged by their looks, backgrounds, or wealth, but by the content of their character. At the time of his death, the Lemonses had been since 2006 the house parents of fourteen children in a therapeutic cottage.
Lemons was involved in a ministry to mentor and teach parenting skills to teenage mothers. Interment was at the City of Lubbock Cemetery.
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Born
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Died
October 12, 2008 (aged 53) -
Nationality
United States -
Religion
Churches of Christ