Billy S. Martin

Billy Sam Martin, 95 of Gibbon passed away Friday, April 11, 2025 at Mt. Carmel Keens Memorial Home in Kearney. Funeral services will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, April 18, 2025 at the O’Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral Home in Kearney. Interment will follow at Riverside Cemetery in Gibbon with military honors provided by American Legion Post #310 in conjunction with the Nebraska National Guard Funeral Honors Team. Visitation will be 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Thursday at O’Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral Home in Kearney. Billy Sam Martin was born in Ada, Oklahoma to Andrew Jackson and Sina Kathryn Anderson Martin of Fitzhugh, OK on November 1, 1929, the eighth in his family. He attended grade school until the seventh grade at Fitzhugh, OK, and then seventh and eighth grade at Walker Consolidated Dist. # 3. He graduated from PauIs Valley, OK High School in 1947, and attended Cameron Junior College in Lawton, OK, receiving an Associate Degree. He graduated from Oklahoma A & M of Stillwater, OK in 1951with a major in Agriculture Education and a minor in Animal Husbandry. In 1951he taught Vocational Agriculture in the Fleming, CO high school for one year before entering the U. S. Army. He was inducted into the U. S. Army and served from 1952-1954, stationed at Camp Roberts, CA, Ft. Benning, GA, and Fort Bragg, N.C. He served in the 77th and 99th Special Forces Units. He completed jump school in Ft. Benning, GA. He was discharged in 1954 and accepted a job as Vocational Agriculture Teacher in Cozad, NE. On June 18, 1955 he married Janice Randall and the couple moved to Gibbon, NE where he taught Vocational Agriculture for three years. In 1958 he became a District Sales Representative for the Ralston Purina Company with an area in Central Nebraska, and the couple moved to Fairbury, NE one year and then to Holdrege, NE. Daughter, Jill Renee was born in 1963 in Holdrege. In 1968 the family moved to Grinnell, IA where daughter, Sina Linn was born. At that time Bill served as a District Sales Manager for Allied Mills, Wayne Feeds. In 1972, a feed and grain business, Grinnell Feeders Service, was purchased and he continued in that business until moving to the Gibbon area in 1981, where the family established a home northwest of Gibbon. Memberships in organizations included Rotary Club in Grinnell, IA and Kearney, NE, Iowa Grain and FeedBoard, Chamber of Commerce in Grinnell, IA and membership and leadership offices in United Methodist Churches in the communities where the family lived. He was pre-deceased by his parents, brothers; Jack, Barclay and Raymond; sisters, Thelma, Laura, Josephine, Oberia, and daughter, Jill Renee. He is survived by: His wife, Janice; daughter and son-in-law, Sina and Michael; grandchild, Alycia “Auggie” Lehn; and a host of nieces, nephews and other family. In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to Bethel United Methodist Church, Kearney Noon Rotary or to Mt. Carmel Keens Memorial Home. Condolences may be shared online at www.osrfh.com. Services are entrusted to O’Brien Straatmann Redinger Funeral and Cremation Services. The family would also like to thank the staff at Mt. Carmel Home for their loving care over the past two years.

Billy S. Martin

November 1, 1929 - April 11, 2025