Bill Threadgill lived 37,029 days and didn’t seem to waste any of them.
The longtime Columbus lawyer and World War II veteran died April 30, about 10 weeks shy of his 102nd birthday.
“Up until three months ago he was living alone and six months ago he was still driving,” said his son, James Threadgill. “You know that Toby Keith song, ‘Don’t Let The Old Man In?’ That was dad.”
The song tells the story of an aging man who refuses to concede to old age by staying active and “not letting the old man in.”
“He was lucid right up until the end,” James Threadgill said. “He kept right on doing things. At 95 years old, he bought a condo at Old Waverly. Who does that? My brothers and sister talked about taking his keys away at one point when he was well into his 90s. He let us know that wasn’t going to happen.”
William J. “Bill” Threadgill was born in Greenwood on July 20, 1923. He left Ole Miss after his freshman year in 1943 to volunteer for service where he flew 20 missions over Nazi Germany as a navigator on a B-17 bomber with the Eighth Air Force and taking part in major campaigns like the Battle of the Bulge. He was so skilled at his job as a navigator, he spent much of his service training navigators.
He returned to Ole Miss to finish his undergraduate degree then earned his law degree at George Washington School of Law in 1949.
Coming to Columbus
Threadgill had no ties to Columbus, but an Ole Miss classmate, another young lawyer named Ben Owen, told him about Columbus attorney John Holloman, who was the best attorney around. Threadgill arrived in Columbus on Thanksgiving Day in 1949, working for Holloman for seven years before opening his own firm.
Threadgill Smith Sanders and Jolly merged with the Mitchell, McNutt, Lagrone and Sams law firm of Tupelo in 1990, creating the state’s largest law firm outside of Jackson.
Threadgill practiced civil law and was especially talented in estate law. He served as president for the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association and sat on the Mississippi Bar’s Board of Commissioners. Threadgill retired in 1999.
Although he didn’t like to talk about the cases he tried, he noted he argued cases before the Mississippi Supreme Court and in federal courts.
“He was the best trial lawyer out there,” said David Sanders, who was Threadgill’s partner for 25 years.
That was about the time Jeff Turnage arrived at the firm to begin his own career as an attorney.
“Mr. T was retiring as I was coming in,” Turnage said. “He had a voice like honey and a mind like a razor. His advice to me was to avoid doing work for the government. No kidding.”
Turnage has served as the Columbus city attorney since 2005.
Although Threadgill officially retired after 45 years, he maintained an office at Mitchell, McNutt and Sams for many more years.
“My dad owned the building where the firm in Columbus was located,” James Threadgill said. “When he got ready to retire, he told them he would sell them the building with one condition, that the firm continue to pay for his secretary. They probably didn’t think much of that then. But dad was there until 2008 when he finally retired for good. So that secretary wound up costing them more than they thought it would.”
A man of many interests
Threadgill’s success as an attorney provided him with the kind of income that allowed him to pursue all of his many passions.
“He was eaten up with turkey hunting,” James Threadgill said. “He taught sixth-grade Sunday School … for more than 25 years and I still get texts and calls from men telling me about having him for a Sunday School teacher.”
Threadgill loved to travel and celebrate, bringing along friends and family to share the fun.
He attended the Kentucky Derby with Sen. Jim Eastland, sitting in the Churchill Downs box owned by Nelson Bunker Hunt, the notorious Texas oil billionaire who later lost his fortune in an attempt to corner the world’s silver market.
Threadgill celebrated his 65th birthday at Club 21 in New York, bringing several couples with him for the occasion. He celebrated his 90th birthday at the famous Grove Park Inn in Ashville, North Carolina.
Then there were the family vacations.
“Every summer, he would pick out a place and take a family trip, the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Maine, places he had heard about. He’d include me and my (three siblings) and usually some of the grandkids. There would be 14 or 15 of us, sometimes more, and he paid for everything. It was something he really loved.”
His greatest love, though, was his wife, Leslie, who passed away in 2016 after 64 years of marriage.
“He was absolutely devoted to mom,” James Threadgill said. “My mom developed a pretty bad case of dementia in her late 60s. She went to Trinity, but my dad didn’t like the long-term facility. He liked their assisted living facility, but she couldn’t take care of herself well enough to live there on her own. So he hired three ladies to take care of her on shifts. For 15 years, he would pick her up three or four times a week and take her for a drive.”
Threadgill wrote three books, one about his military service, another about his time as a lawyer in Columbus and another about the old building that served as his law office on Fifth Street North.
Doctor’s orders: Wild Turkey
James said his dad lived on his own at Old Waverly with the assistance of a lady who made his meals and maintained the house. In early January, the lady told James her father had a bad cough he couldn’t shake.
“I brought him to Tupelo and he stayed at my house for about a week,” James Threadgill said. “Then, we found out about an opening at Traceway Retirement Community here in town, which is a really nice place. In order for him to move in, he had to have a medical checkup. That information was given to the nursing staff. One of the doctor’s orders was that Dad was to have an ounce-and-a-half of Wild Turkey every afternoon. So, from the time he arrived, there was a bottle of Wild Turkey at the nurse’s station just for him. That was dad.”
James Threadgill said his father’s life was rich, not only in material terms but by more important measures, his family and friendships.
“We’ve just been amazed by all the texts and calls and Facebook posts from people wanting to share their stories about him,” James Threadgill said. “Dad had an incredible life.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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