Ethna Faye Billings

Ethna Choo-Choo was a true lover of all things School of the Ozarks/College of the Ozarks. She served faithfully as Class Agent and hostess to her Annual Homecoming Souper Events at Branson Hotel. Always a kind smile, sweet spirit, a keen mind that could remember events long buried in my memory bank. A woman among women. I shall miss her at Class Agents Meetings & Homecoming. Her jersey is retired, hanging up in the lofty rafters, because no one can replace Choo-Choo. She has gone on ahead, and our goal is to reunite There some day.

Ethna was working at the Assemblies of God, Springfield, MO for 12 years when I joined the department in 1968. I learned quickly that she could tell me anything I wanted to know about inventory, catalog items, personnel, etc. She did her job long, almost 40 years, and she did it well. And I'll remember her for her sense of humor and her chuckle.

You and your family were always respected community members. Remember Ethan being a much better student than I was. Always a faithful hard worker. One of God’s best kids.

Ethna Faye Billings A five-year-old girl recently strutted around with a new birthday shirt imprinted with “One of a Kind” on the front. It was one of her favorite gifts. Here in Springfield, Missouri, we thought Ethna Faye was also one of a kind. And it appears that friends from College of the Ozarks and at her home in Arkansas also view her as one of a kind. Ethna joined the work force of the Gospel Publishing House in 1958 and stayed on the job for the next nearly 37 years—one of the longest terms of service in her department. Anyone who began working in the department soon learned that Ethna could tell them exactly what they wanted to know about product inventory. But she wanted nobody messing around with her files. She would do the looking. In the early years she would open her old-time flat files that predated computers, for example, and come up with the number of copies the company had in stock of a particular book, hymnbook, communion set, or a thousand other items. And she could tell how long the stock would last. She did her job well. And she did it long, from the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower until that of Bill Clinton. And she protected those files as if they were her very own. Maybe she considered the files did belong to her. But it showed her dedication to the job and the Lord’s work. A co-worker, Wayne Warner, said he did not know about Ethna’s activities outside of the office until his daughter graduated from high school. At the honors ceremony, the school principal introduced Ethna to the seniors. Ethna came to the podium and greeted the seniors on behalf of a local professional women’s club. Warner added that he was pleased to learn that Ethna was president of the group--a distinct honor. Everyone who met Ethna would soon learn of her sense of humor. One day she told an employee, who attended one of the largest churches in Springfield, that his church would be the first to go up in the Rapture. When the employee looked puzzled, Ethna chuckled and with a big smile said, “The Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise first.” With twinkling eyes, she chuckled a little louder. That was Ethna Faye Billings, a friend of many. And they are sad to say goodbye but are assured they will meet again in heaven where there are no sicknesses nor goodbyes.