Written by Ben Cox – In a quiet house on a County Road just a few minutes away from Prima Pasta, lives a man who has seen more of this world, and of this town, than almost any 2 local men put together. H.F. Pierson, who goes by Bill, will turn 104 years old this fall.
Born in Electra, TX in October of 1914, Bill’s family moved to the Wichita Falls area when he was five years old, and then came to Brownwood in 1929 when Bill was a teenager. His father worked in the oilfield while his mother raised Bill and his six siblings.
Bill with his mother and little sister
Bill as a Senior at Brownwood High School
He met his wife, Juanita, in high school, when they lived “down the alley” from each other. They married when he was 21 and she was 19, in Coleman, and were told by the Courthouse staff they needed a witness. Bill happened to see a man who sold potato chips in town, who he knew through work, and he became their witness.
The couple spent their first year living with her mother, creating a make-shift apartment out of the unused chicken house in the backyard. They lived in their “apartment” for about a year, before moving out to find a place of their own.
After taking a job with Johnson Motor Lines, Bill delivered freight in town. He made the first delivery of lumber for the construction of Camp Bowie.
After realizing that friends he used to deliver to were gone because they had enlisted, Bill went to San Angelo to enlist in the Army. He was 29 years old and had served in the National Guard for 4 years before signing up. During his service, he was trained at several Army ordinance schools on how to handle, pack, and deliver ammunition and artillery.
A dapper young man in uniform
Bill tells a story of working at a target school in West Texas that allowed pilots to hone their craft before shipping off to England. He would fill practice bombs with sand and a small charge of black powder, so that the impact could be seen from the air.
While awaiting orders for his next assignment after completing one training school, Bill decided to visit New York and Chicago to see the sights while his orders were being drafted. Upon returning to his base, his commander sent him back to San Angelo to receive his assignment.
His orders said “Report Upon Arrival,” but Bill went home for about two weeks before realizing he should have immediately traveled to San Angelo to report for duty. Once he arrived at the base, he discovered that the officer in charge had been looking for him for the entire time, but after reviewing his less-than-clear orders and their wording, the commanding officer declined to punish Pierson.
Bill was then given his marching orders. He was headed to England.
Pierson trained with air crews and also was part of a mechanics shop before it was time to prepare for the D-Day invasion. He was part of a crew that loaded the ships heading across the channel for the assault on Hitler’s grasp on France.
A little over two weeks after the invasion, Bill himself headed over. His time in the war took him all across Europe, including a visit to a castle in Germany where he “could see for miles, and saw two or three other castles in the distance.”
After returning home in 1946, Bill got his job back at Johnson Motor Lines and took up life again much the same as it was when he left.
Taken at Coggin Park
Once, while out to the movies with Juanita, Bill felt an awful pain and rushed to the doctor’s office. His appendix had burst, and the doctor removed it there in his office. After closing the incision that was packed with sulfur drugs, Bill was told he would either live or die and there was nothing that could be done about it.
Bill and Juanita had one child, Bill Terry Pierson, who lives in Brownwood today in his father’s old house. After retiring in 1967, the same year the Brownwood Lions won their third state championship, the Piersons took to traveling the country, seeing as many sights as they could.
An avid outdoorsman, Bill liked to hunt and fish in his younger days as well as tend his garden. To this day, he keeps a garden in the backyard of his house planning to plant okra, squash, cucumber and tomatoes in the spring.
