Date of Birth: 16th June 1932

Place of Birth: Tacumshane, Co. Wexford

Date Interviewed: 20th July 2009

Summary: Billy Owens grew up in Tacumshane in south Co. Wexford. The iconic windmill in the area, one of only three left in the country in 2009, was fully functioning during his childhood and he remembers it being turned to face into the wind. Billy was educated in the local school and clearly recalls the day a German WW2 bomber crash-landed on the beach nearby. He and some friends managed to salvage souvenirs from the plane itself. He left school in his early teens and served his time as a panelbeater in several Wexford firms. Billy then moved to Manchester where he easily found work because of his skill. He saw an advert in a Manchester newspaper offering panelbeating work in America and he moved to Topeka, Kansas in 1968. He has remained in Kansas and describes himself as “semi-retired”. He is a keen hunter and, like his sons, a car enthusiast. He lives in the house he bought on the reservation of the Potawatomi Native American Tribe!