A long life in Fairhope

Joseph “Billy” Garner is a long-time resident of Fairhope. He remembers when Fairhope had two service stations, one barber shop and one doctor.

“We had to go to Mobile for the dentist,” he says. “I was born in Bay Minette, but my family moved to Fairhope when I was three. I’m the only one of my brothers that was born in Baldwin County.”

Garner’s family moved to the area on Hwy. 104 that is now owned by Auburn University.

“Fairhope is a wonderful, wonderful place,” he says. “It’s a great place to raise a family; it’s really small. I used to know everybody in town.”

At the age of 17, Garner followed suite to his three older brothers and joined the service. His older brothers were in the army and navy and one was a pilot. Garner also joined the navy during World War II.

“I was on the USS Livermore,” he says. “I served in the South Pacific — wherever they needed me to go.”

Although he was only in the service for one year, Garner’s passion and patriotism for the United   States is just as strong today.

When he came back to the United States, Garner finished high school in 1948 and went to college. He played football at the University of Arkansas his freshman year and then went to Troy State Teachers   College. He taught science and mathematics and coached football, baseball and basketball at Loxley, Fairhope and in Mobile County.

While he was coaching a football game, he met his future wife — by accident. Ann came to the game with a friend of hers and Garner was coaching his team.

“I went to go get a drink during the game and I came back and my playbook was gone,” Garner says. “Ann’s girlfriend had taken it. So I dated her a few times and then Ann and I started dating. I didn’t date another person.”

They have been married for 59 years.

After 11 years of teaching, Garner started selling insurance. And today, in his late eighties, he still sells it.

“He started selling insurance in 1963 and he’s been doing it ever since,” Ann says, laughing.

VFW Post 5660 Honor Guard

Garner has been involved in numerous organizations, one of the reasons he was awarded the Veteran of the Year in 2009 by the city of Fairhope.

He is involved with the Civitan Club and was president for two terms. He has been a member of Greeno Masonic Lodge for 60 years. Garner is a member of Fairhope Community Baptist Church, where he is a deacon.

In April of 2010, Garner and his wife, Ann, were traveling back across the bay from a funeral in Mobile. The honor guard funeral was for a veteran, and it got Garner thinking.

“I told my wife, ‘I’m going to start something,’” he says. “People from Monroeville came down to help me start the VFW Post 5660 Honor Guard in Fairhope in October.”

On August 1, Garner was presented the first VFW Post 5660 Meritorious Service Medal for his outstanding foresight, patriotic sense of duty, dedication and perseverance he has demonstrated in the inception, training, fundraising and equipage of Post 5660 Honor Guard.

“I always support our military,” Garner says. “My mom had a flag on our door and it had three stars on it. People always asked, ‘why only four stars?’ My mom told them she had four boys in the service all at the same time.”

Garner and Ann have three sons, Billy of North Carolina, Terry of Fairhope and Paul of Fairhope. They have four children and six great-grandchildren.