Billy Joe Booth

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Billy Joe Booth
Born	April 7, 1940(1940-04-07) Minden, Webster Parish, Louisiana, USA
Died	June 30, 1972 (aged 32) Dorchester, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Football player; Electrical contractor
Religious beliefs	Missionary Baptist
Spouse	Janice Schouest Booth
Children	Mike Booth (born ca. 1963), Coy Ulysses Booth (deceased)
Notes Louisiana native Booth perished in a small plane crash in Canada, which he was visiting on a fishing trip, after having played for eight years in the Canadian Football League for the Ottawa Rough Riders.

Billy Joe Booth (April 7, 1940 - June 30, 1972)^[1] played professionally with the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League from 1962-1970. He also played for his alma maters, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and Minden High School in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, where he was born and reared. After his football career, Booth was an electrical contractor for the IC Electric Company in Harvey, a census-designated place on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Jefferson Parish near New Orleans.

Booth and his friend, James W. Magee, Jr. (1938-1972), of Morgan City in Terrebonne Parish in south Louisiana, were killed in an airplane crash near Dorchester, Ontario. The two were in Canada on a fishing trip when their four-seat Piper Cherokee Arrow crashed during a thunderstorm. Witnesses said that the plane blew up and fell to the ground, with wreckage spread over an area of some one and one-half miles. The plane was en route from Windsor to London but crashed some ten miles before reaching its destination.^[2]

Booth was born and reared in the small city of Minden. He graduated from Minden High School in 1958 and then LSU in 1962, having received a bachelor of science degree in physical education.^[3] At Minden High School, Booth played football from 1954 to 1957. His coach for the first three seasons was the former professional player, George Doherty, but Doherty left Minden for Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in Booth's senior year. Another of Booth's coaches was his maternal uncle, Patrick Cary Nation (1918-2005), later a school principal. Booth was designated "All-State" and the "Outstanding Blocker" in 1956. He also played baseball in 1956 and ran track from 1955-1958. He was All-State in track in 1957. He was an elected member of the MHS Student Council in his senior year.^[4] At LSU, he played in the 1962 Senior Bowl.^[5]

He was the son of Coy Dexter Booth (ca. 1915-2004), who retired in 1978 from the Kansas City Southern Railway and was formerly employed as a carman by Louisiana and Arkansas Railroad, and the former Fern Nation (1915-2001) a Minden native. The Booths were living in Shreveport when their son was killed. Booth married the former Janice Schouest, whom he met at LSU, and was the father of two young sons, Mike Booth (born ca. 1963) and Coy Ulysses Booth (born ca. 1965 - since deceased, automobile accident victim). He had a sister, Carole Booth Mulina (born ca. 1944), and brother-in-law, Andy V. Mulina (born ca. 1942), then of Cleveland, Ohio, and later of the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield, Missouri.^[6]

Booth was six feet tall and weighed 240 pounds. Many had considered him too small to be a defensive end, but his toughness and determination was said to have overcome his physical limitations. His size thwarted his ultimate goal of playing in the National Football League. Booth's team won the Grey Cup in both 1968 and 1969. During the 1969 season, he was named "Outstanding Lineman" in the eastern division of the Canadian Football League. He lost the coveted Schenley Award to John LaGrone of the Edmonton Eskimos. Booth was not compelled to retire but could likely have played a few more seasons. Many lamented his decision to leave the game and the circumstances of his ill-fated fishing trip.^[7]

Booth grew up in the Missionary Baptist denomination. After his death, the congregation of the former Central Missionary Baptist Church of Shreveport, under the late pastor Dwayne Furlow, established the Billy Joe Booth Memorial Press. Booth's father at the time was a deacon at the church. The late L.L. Clover, a prominent Missionary Baptist minister from Minden and longtime friend of the Booth family, officiated at the dedication ceremonies. When Central Baptist merged with another congregation, the Booths transferred their membership to the Heritage Missionary Baptist Church in Bossier City.^[8]

Six years before his death, Booth penned a letter to his young sons informing them that he might not live as long as most people. Booth urged the boys to turn their lives over to Jesus Christ. Booth told his sons: "The good Lord has been good to me, and He will do the same for you if you will only put your faith and trust in Him." In making the letter public, Pastor Furlow added in his comments: "We need to be ready to meet God at every moment. We do not know when our name shall be called by the Death Angel."^[9]

Booth is interred in Westlawn Memorial Park in Gretna in Jefferson Parish.

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