A Tribute to Billy Causey, Music Minister, First Baptist Church, Zachary, Louisiana: The True Music Man

I grew up in Zachary, Louisiana, as the oldest child of the pastor of First Baptist Church on Main Street in the heart of town.  When we first moved there in 1961, I fell in love with the Minister of Music, Wayne Vincent.  He was my first love, and I would pick bouquets of tiny white flowers from the bushes around the church and give them to him and imagine our wedding.  I was 3 and a half years old, so he didn’t take it too seriously, but I did.  When he left to move to the big city, Baton Rouge, I was crushed.  I couldn’t imagine life at First Baptist Zachary without him. 

Around 1970, when I was 12 or 13 or so, a new music minister arrived, Billy Causey, and I was immediately swept away by his enthusiasm, vitality, good cheer, beautiful voice, trumpet-playing, and all-over love of life.  He came with his sweet wife Judy, the drama teacher, and they soon produced 2 very cute children, Clay and Clacy, who became darlings of the congregation, much like my sister Kim and I had been when we first arrived.  To say, I loved them all is an understatement.  

They brought new, fresh, young energy that revitalized us all, at a critical juncture—the heyday of the 60s, and they were able to ride with the energy of the times and bring it into our little world in a way that expanded it but didn’t overturn it.  My dad probably had a hand in that too, but that’s for another story.  Simply put, Billy and Judy, Clay, and Clacy, provided a nice counterbalance to my dad’s seriousness and authority, and lightened things up considerably, but with real depth of feeling.

Billy was the one who made the youth choir a truly exhilarating experience, giving us music to sing that cheered our hearts and felt contemporary and cool; taking us on tours to Disneyworld, Washington, DC, and points all over the southeast; and most of all, being a true friend and mentor, listening to our heartfelt concerns and caring about each of us.  He did it all with such depth of feeling, genuine love of music and people, openness, kindness, humor, and bonhomie, that we couldn’t help but follow him.  He was the Pied Piper, the Music Man, leading us along paths that expanded our hearts and confidence and helped us sing our hearts out.

Plus he could sing.  He had a beautiful voice that brought out the best in our voices.  And he was funny.  

As I moved away and into my adult life, I longed still to hear Billy sing, and I asked him to sing at my wedding.  I was always cheered, moved, and heartened to hear him and see him when I visited.  He had a way of looking at you that made you feel seen and heard and known.

He died yesterday, January 6, 2015, in  Zachary, still a young man.  Many, many people will miss him, his voice and presence, including me.  Even though, I haven’t lived in Zachary for 38 years, he has shaped and moved me and inspired me all this time and always will.  

Thank you, Billy, for encouraging us to sing and embodying your faith with true devotion, humor, and beautiful, strong music. Sending you many bouquets of tiny white flowers and singing “Softly and Tenderly”….