May 2015
Billie Silvey
California always seemed like home to me
despite the fact that the rest of the family was
from Texas, so  it was easy to transfer to
Pepperdine from Abilene Christian College
when we lost our journalism department in
1965.   

I edited the
Optimist at Abilene Christian and
20th Century Christian Magazine.

I've written eight
books--four on books of the
Bible--Ephesians, Matthew, 2 Corinthians
and Hebrews--one on Time Management
with Helen Young, one on Women in the
church, one on urban ministry and my current
book on aging.

I've spoken for women's groups and for
college lectureships across the nation on the
topics of the books.

I learned to work, at least in part, from my
hard-working single Granny.  
The death of my Grandfather Wesley, leaving
my Granny a widow in 1918, meant that she
had to work several different jobs so her
family could survive.  Among these was
setting type with tweezers for Mr. Sprawls,
the editor of the
Happy Herald.

When my father was a child, he followed his
mother working for Mr. Sprawls, and when
he grew up, he bought the newspaper.  

When I was a child, I worked with him on the
paper.  That started me on my career in
English and journalism--writing and  editing
books and magazine and newspaper
articles.  That's been my career throughout
my life.

I happened to have been born in
Sacramento, California, when my Dad was
stationed at
Mather Field with the Army Air
Corps during World War II, a natural
outgrowth of World War I.  
Impact