July 25, 1938 – April 30, 2015
Married: Faye James Patton on September 1, 1958
Children: Lisa Patton Wheeler, Lora Patton Hall, Lyle Patton
8 Grandchildren
William Lee "Bill" Patton was born to Thomas William and Maymie Lee (Midgett) Patton of Watertown on July 25, 1938. As a boy Billy rode his bicycle to deliver groceries to customers of the Midgett family grocery in Watertown. However, it was being a little boy in overalls racing to keep up with his granddaddy Everett Patton on the Smith Hollow Road family land that stirred a life-long love of farming. Billy’s Aunt Janet remembers that he just couldn’t wait to drive the cattle across the creek.
As a teenager Billy embraced his hometown as quarterback of the Watertown High School football team and earned Most Valuable Player on the school’s basketball team his senior year. Within a couple of years of graduation, Bill married Margie Faye James of Mt. Juliet and joined the United States Air Force. The service took him to Japan for a year, then he and his young wife to Oregon for 2 ½ years. Afterwards the couple returned to Wilson County with a baby daughter and moved into a home in Mt. Juliet. Bill began a 40-plus year career with Western Electric and eventually AT&T, but he never left his love for farming and continued to raise produce and beef cattle by working early shifts so he would have the rest of the day to farm. Another daughter and a son blessed Bill and Faye, so he had three farmhands to plant tobacco, tie-up tomatoes, and rake the hay.
Bill’s commercial cow herd was generally multi-breed. His bull stock ranged from Charolais, Red & Black Angus to others. With multiple herds on his own land as well as various locations around the county, Bill was open to new thinking and challenges in today’s farming industry. He participated in the Advanced Master Beef Producers offered through the Tennessee Agriculture Enhancement Program which offers continuing education classes focused on economics, raising forage and herd management. Bill acted as a mentor aiding and encouraging young farmers in Wilson County. He worked tirelessly harvesting hay for his own herds as well as others.
Bill also worked in the logging business for a time. He was an active member of the Wilson County Farmer’s Coop, Wilson County Fair Board, Wilson County Farm Bureau Board of Directors, The Cattleman’s Association as well as various other community organizations.
Bill also served his community government as an elected official of the Wilson County Commission for 16 years and the Mt. Juliet City Commission for one term in the 1980s. Bill and Faye are charter members of Victory Baptist Church in Mt. Juliet.
Above all, Bill’s love of God and family stood first in his life, but farming was a close second. Over his last 11 years, Bill fought an intense battle against cancer. His oncologist explained to Bill that he needed to limit activity and farming didn’t fit that prescription. In a soft but firm voice, Bill simply said, "Doc, if I’m not farming, I’m not living." Bill passed to his heavenly home at age 76 on Thursday, April 30, 2015 where he is certainly farming fields of gold.
