Kelt-Bilbo
Lea County Families, Then and Now, Vol I, 1979
Submitted by: Willie Kelt Bilbo
My father, William Moreham Kelt, was born December 25, 1888, in
Chartfield, Nevarro County, Texas. He died November 5, 1939, Fort Stanton, New
Mexico. He came to White Oaks, New Mexico in January 1906 to work in the gold
mines to help a widowed mother and four younger sisters.
My mother, Margaret Mackie Gallacher, was born in White Oaks, New Mexico , on
June 2, 1890, and died in Tucumcari, New Mexico, January 9, 1974.
My mother and father eloped to El Paso, Texas and were married October 10, 1910.
In 18122 my parents moved to Miami, Arizona, where my father worked in the
copper mines. I was born in Miami, Arizona
When I was three years od my family returned to Lincoln County, New Mexico,
where my father went inti the ranching business. I went through the eighth grade
in White Oaks and went to high school in Carrizozo, Ndew Mexico, graduating in
1932. I went to work for the telephone company and worked there until May 1934
when I was married to Otha Jones Bilbo.. He was born in Sanco, Coke County,
Texas.
We came to Lea ounty, January 1936. Otha went to work for B.F.Walker Trucking
Company. In September 1936 we moved to Monument, New Mexico to work for Amerada
Oil Company. In 1942 we moved back to Hobbs. I went to work for the telephone
company and Otha went into the Navy in October 1943, serving twenty-three months
in the South Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Sratoga; he was discharged in October
1945.
In November 1945 we went into the service station business and operated Bilbo's
service Station in Hobbs for thirty years, closing down December 1975 and
retiring. Otha's hobbies are hunting and fishing and mine, of course, geneaogy.
We have one son, Paul Dee Lee Bolbo. He, his wife, daughter and son live in
Hobbs, New Mexico where he works for the Southwestern Public Service Company.