ArizonaRealCountry.com 9 July 2019 Bill had a wonderful, loving outlook on life. I believe he wanted everyone to be able to see, as he did, the beauty that surrounds all of us. Perhaps it was said best by the man himself in one of his “Memories of Texas Flat” columns that he wrote for me at the paper. (Texas is a section over in the original section of Payson that still exists today—maybe not as Billy knew it, but it is still there). He said, “The little things in my life were wonderful and the older I got the more I could look back and see that the way people tease a child was just another form of saying, ‘Billy, I love you.’ If I was ever granted the power, I’d give anything if I could, for just a moment, return to those wonderful days in Texas Flat. I would go back to each and every home and say, ‘God bless you, I love you.’ Without those little things in my life, there would have been nothing. There was love there, and lots of it. I know there are times in all our lives when we would like to return to the wonders and beautiful times of our childhood. I know where mine are; where is your Texas Flat?” Bill Haught also loved being out in nature. He gained a wonderful sort of quiet strength that allowed him to see the good in everything. He said one of his greatest inspirations was an old oak tree just off Main Street in the original section of Payson. Having stood under the majestic canopy of that grand old tree with him a few times I grew to understand exactly what he was talking about. Billy Haught, White Bird, was a loving man, and he had a way of suppressing his frustrations with his art. One of the reasons for his frustration was that his style was so very close to the Mexican artist Ted DeGrazia’s. He spoke often of Ted and of some of his visits to DeGrazia’s place in Tucson, Arizona. On many occasions, White Bird created small paintings for me that I used as covers for the Apache Junction Territorial Dispatch news publication while I was the editor. I have no idea what happened to those originals. Bill didn’t take them very seriously so he just left them or painted over them. The ones he left at the paper I didn’t have the forethought to keep or store myself. Sure wish I had now. It had been once said that Bill painted more than 200,000 pieces during his career. I don’t know how true that is, but knowing the speed at which he could put paint on a canvass when he wanted to, I’m pretty convinced he was capable of achieving that number. I had heard rumored over the years that supposedly there was a warehouse in California somewhere where many of his canvasses were stored. However, all that said, Bill did reach some acclaim in his own right. There were several shows at the state Capital and his paintings hang on many prominent walls throughout Arizona and California. It was from these shows that it was believed that Bill would be the next DeGrazia. That was nice, Bill said, but there could only be one Ted DeGrazia—and to his way of thinking there could only be one White Bird. To my way of thinking, Billy Haught achieved his success. There will never be another White Bird. I lost my good friend just two days before Christmas in 1992. Thank you, Billy Haught, for the good times and for the memories I still have. Ride easy my old friend... Ride easy. Congress is a lifestyle... Susan Abare 928-713-7472 SAbare@AwardRealty.com • CUSTOM HOMES • SECOND HOMES • PREMIUM HORSE PROPERTIES • INVESTMENT & COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES • HOME LOTS • ACREAGE AMAZING NIGHT SKY GROUP THERAPY NATURE WALKS HORSING AROUND OUTDOOR FUN AMAZING NIGHT SKY GROUP THERAPY NATURE WALKS HORSING AROUND OUTDOOR FUN For some reason or another, I had my guitar with me and he had his fiddle. We took over an area in the middle of the store for about twenty minutes. We had a ball—so did everybody else for that matter.