Longtime CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial Chaplain Dies at 92


Brother Billy (seated), his daughter Brenda Walker (far left), and wife Anita Jackson (center) pose with the newly unveiled bronze plaque and CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial Market CEO Gary Looper (right). (Photo: CHI St. Luke's Memorial Health)
Brother Billy (seated), his daughter Brenda Walker (far left), and wife Anita Jackson (center) pose with the newly unveiled bronze plaque and CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial Market CEO Gary Looper (right). (Photo: CHI St. Luke’s Memorial Health)

Longtime chaplain and spiritual counselor at CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial died at the age of 92.

Serving as a member of the hospital’s Board of Directors and Board of Trustees, Brother Billy Jackson became part of the Memorial family while he was the Chairman and CEO of Perry Brothers, a national retailer headquartered in Lufkin. Following his retirement, he was asked to serve as a Lay Chaplain for Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin. Soon thereafter, Brother Billy was named the full time chaplain—a position he held from May 1997 to May 2015.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to Brother Billy’s wife Anita and his entire family,” said Shawn Barnett, CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial Market COO & Lufkin President. “We are grateful for his longtime, compassionate service to the patients, providers and guests of CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial. He will be greatly missed.”

Last month, more than 100 employees gathered to honor Brother Billy as we unveiled a bronze plaque in his honor that now hangs next to the chapel.

During his tenure with Memorial, Brother Billy counseled and offered guidance and leadership to thousands of patients, guests, employees and physicians. He led morning prayer groups around the hospital, prayed intimately with patients and their families, offered spiritual guidance, held worship services in the hospital chapel and could be seen handing out daily devotionals to all he met.

Brother Billy is remembered by his Memorial family for his timeless service and his faithfulness to God’s cause.

About CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial

Memorial provides more than a quarter of a million patient services each year and has a longstanding history of providing quality, innovative health care in East Texas.

With hospitals in Lufkin, Livingston, San Augustine and Memorial Specialty – the area’s only long-term acute care hospital – CHI St. Luke’s Health Memorial provides millions of dollars in charity care and community support each year.  Our mission is to nurture the healing ministry of the Church, supported by education and research.  Fidelity to the Gospel urges us to emphasize human dignity and social justice as we create healthier communities.

Memorial offers a wide array of services, including the area’s first dedicated heart and stroke care facility and radiation oncology at the Temple Cancer Center. It is also known for the area’s only comprehensive diabetes, heart and stroke education center. Other specialty areas include imaging, orthopedic care, women’s services, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, homecare, wound care and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, kidney & diabetes treatment, sleep disorders treatment and express lab.

About Catholic Health Initiatives

Catholic Health Initiatives, a nonprofit, faith-based health system formed in 1996 through the consolidation of four Catholic health systems, expresses its mission each day by creating and nurturing healthy communities in the hundreds of sites across the nation where it provides care. One of the nation’s largest health systems, Englewood, Colo.-based CHI operates in 19 states and comprises 105 hospitals, including four academic health centers and major teaching hospitals and 30 critical-access facilities; community health-services organizations; accredited nursing colleges; home-health agencies; and other facilities that span the inpatient and outpatient continuum of care.

In fiscal year 2014, CHI provided $910 million in charity care and community benefit – a nearly 20% increase over the previous year – for programs and services for the poor, free clinics, education and research. Charity care and community benefit totaled more than $1.7 billion with the inclusion of the unpaid costs of Medicare. The health system, which generated revenues of almost $13.9 billion in fiscal year 2014, has total assets of $21.8 billion. Learn more at www.catholichealthinitiatives.com.

, ,