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CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF PROVIDING QUALITY WESTERN WEAR TO THE TEXAS HILL COUNTRY!
This December marks 40 years that Billy’s Western Wear has been outfitting the Texas hill country in the latest western fashions, and through those years the store has become synonymous with quality western wear and accessories. While you may be familiar with the stores, have you ever wondered who the “Billy” behind Billy’s Western Wear is? Well, it’s not just Billy that is the driving force behind the stores, but rather the Bishop family! And the story behind the stores’ 40 years is actually a lot more than meets the eye. The Billy’s Western Wear tale is in fact a good old fashioned love story: love of God, love of their country, love of each other and love and service to their fellow man. Billy Bishop and his wife Sarah are both native
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B oerne B usiness M onthly | December 2020
Texans and currently live in Boerne. Born in 1926, Billy will be 95 this upcoming January 2021. He grew up on his parents’ dairy farm where he remembers helping out by delivering milk. Sarah’s parents were farmers and she was the seventh of eight children, born in 1938. Both Billy and Sarah had to work very hard to help their families growing up. It was a hard life for both of them. After Billy’s 16th birthday, his father died, leaving his mom with two sons. Sarah’s mother died when she was just five years old. These absences left both families with huge struggles just to make ends meet. “I recall having to walk to school without any shoes and being made fun of because our family was so poor,” said Sarah, “Perhaps that’s one of the reasons our stores carry so many boots continued on page 18
