Obituary | Billie D. Bobo | Bradshaw & Range Funeral Home PC (2024)

Billie Dove BoBo, Queen Mother, came into this world on October 21, 1935, and took up her angelic wings for heaven on October 25, 2023. She was born to Cal and Edna J. (Matthews) Bankhead in Snow Lake, Arkansas. Queen Mother Billie was the youngest of eight siblings. Her sisters, Elizabeth, Helen, Irene, Mary, and brothers Albert, Cal Jr, and Louis, all (including her parents) preceded her in passing.

Cal, Sr., and Edna instilled in Billie, at an early age, the value of education. In 1943, the influence of a better education, better job opportunities, and a better life contributed to their decision to relocate to Waukegan, Illinois. They were a part of “The Black Migration,” which occurred between 1910 and 1970 in the movement of six million African-Americans from the rural South to the Northeast, West, and Midwest.

Billie moved to Waukegan with her parents and entered the Waukegan Public School System in 1943, becoming the top student in her grade level. Driven by her mother’s sheer determination to achieve high levels of education, Billie realized the importance of education at an early age. Her mother, Edna J. Bankhead, had been denied the opportunity of education by racist white school systems in Arkansas.

Billie moved to North Chicago and attended Lindbergh School and Central School, continuing her high academic achievement, being a disciplined student, and doing her best. One of Billie’s lifelong passions was writing short stories and poems reflecting life’s challenges and tragedies. She continued writing all of her life and has a large collection of unpublished items, which will soon be published as a part of her memoirs.

Early in her preteen years, Billie and her mother joined Mount Sinai Baptist Church in North Chicago, Illinois, under the pastoral leadership of Rev. W.D. Kilgore. She was constantly on Sunday afternoon programs with poems she had memorized. She participated in several organizations at Mt. Sinai, including teenage youth choir poetry recitals. Because of her involvement in church, she caught the eye of a young man with the nickname of “Skip” BoBo.

Throughout high school, Billie played clarinet in the high school marching and concert band. She continued her high achievement, and when she graduated in June 1953 from Waukegan Township High School, her academic discipline placed her in the class rank of 47 out of 492 students, in the top 10% of her class. More importantly, she was the highest-ranked African-American student in her class of 1953. Unfortunately, racism, prejudice, and discrimination were quite prevalent in the Northern suburbs of Chicago. The counselors did not talk to the colored students about colleges and scholarships. Ms. BoBo desired to go to Howard University, but she had no information on colleges, applications, or scholarships. She, instead, went part-time in 1953 to a liberal arts school called Lake Forest College. In 1955, she pledged at Northwestern University and became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

After several years of courting, letters sent around the world, and military duties, “Skip”, whose real name was Melvin L. BoBo Jr., proposed to her in 1955; in June 1956, they were married, and in 1957, their first child was born. Billie put academics aside to become a wife and, by 1961, a full-time mother and family-oriented and dedicated mother to her growing family of three boys, Melvin III (Binky), James (Ricky), and (Baby) Kerry.

In 1961, Ms. Billie went to work at Abbott Labs in North Chicago, Illinois. When the Abbott Park campus opened, Ms. Billie was one of the first Blacks hired for the new Abbott Park campus.

Ms. Billie had her fourth son in 1965, Larry (Goo-Goo). Billie and Skip divorced in the Summer of 1972, and Ms. Billie supported four boys on a small check. and she continued to advocate education as she raised four boys and pushed for high academic achievement. Ms. Billie eventually convinced her three sons to prepare and do well in high school to go to college.

She realized she needed to return to college for her degree. She returned and completed the requirements for her Bachelor's Degree in 1976 and graduated with her B.S. in Business Management at Mundelein College in Chicago.

While her three older sons were in college and one son at home, she became more involved in local politics. She formed a political organization called Citizens for Fourteen, became a PTA mom for her youngest child, a volunteer mom for the peewee football team, a tutor at the high school, and took on another job as a real estate agent to supplement her income. She also became very active with her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, and as a charter member, helped form the Waukegan Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Chapter, Inc.

In 1997, 1999, 2004, and 2006, Ms. Billie co-chaired, for the Waukegan Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, a program for young men called Beautillion Militaire Ball whereby African-American young men were formally introduced to society.

Over the years, Queen Mother BoBo, with four boys in college, became more involved in community and political events and community affairs. Her advocacies included becoming precinct captain, election judge, and community activist.

When Queen Mother retired and became a Delta Dear, she traveled internationally with her church, Trinity United Church of Christ, and pastor, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. Mrs. BoBo has traveled to West Africa, South Africa, Egypt, South America, and the Caribbean Islands.

At 75 years of age, Mrs. BoBo took on a new chapter of her life and moved from Illinois to Georgia. She said the snow and cold, frigid weather was a significant factor in her decision to relocate to warmer weather. In 2010, she moved to Covington, GA, bought another house and joined Springfield Baptist Church, where she enjoyed her new church family. She has participated actively in Sunday School, Disciples of Hope, Adult Choir, and Servolution-food distribution.

Other highlights in her life that she enjoyed were seeing the college graduations of all four sons, being chosen as Parent of the Year at Tuskegee University in 1986, initiating discussion to have a street named after Martin Luther King Jr. in North Chicago, Illinois, and being honored as a recipient of Lake County Civil Rights Hall of Fame for her community and civil rights work to help the disenfranchised.

A thirteen-year member of Springfield Baptist Church. Mrs. BoBo leaves to cherish her memory: three sons, Melvin III, James, and Larry; ten grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends; and her loving Sorors of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Billie D. BoBo was truly a gentle giant, a Queen Mother, and a surrogate mother to many. She had the blessed and uncanny ability to see the best in everyone, young and old, and challenge them to be better. Her record and legacy of helping the disenfranchised will be etched in history. She is now seated at Heaven’s community roundtable. Her compassion, love, loyalty, servitude, and innate strength will be missed tremendously.

In Memoriam

For those who wish, contributions may be made to a scholarship in her name to help minority students in their desire to attend an HBCU. Contributions can be made to the “Billie D. BoBo Memorial Scholarship Fund”

A Celebration of Her Life Service will be held at 11:00 A.M., Saturday, November 11, 2023 at the First Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church, 1529 Elizabeth Avenue, North Chicago, IL. Pastor Eugene Roberson, Officiating. Interment will be at Mt. Olivet Memorial Park Cemetery, Zion, IL. Visitation will begin at 10:00 A.M. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to the Billie D. Bobo Memorial Scholarship...TBA.

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