Billy Dale Dacus

Billy Dale Dacus Senior, longtime resident of Michigan City, MS and Memphis, TN, ended his mortal journey on Friday, February 28, 2025, while staying at a friend’s home in Gulfport, MS.

Billy was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He graduated from Arlington High School, in Arlington, TN, then joined the United States Marine Corps hoping to do his part in Vietnam. Billy served honorably in the Marine Corps for 11 years. As a civilian, he continued his public service, working as an ambulance driver and a detention officer in Tennessee. In between, he worked as a long-haul trucker, delivery driver, security guard and factory worker.

Though Billy was a “Lone Wolf” who walked to the beat of his own drum, he never met a stranger. The people he adopted as brothers, sisters, children, and grandchildren are too numerous to count. If you ever met him, you knew he accepted you without judgment.

Billy was preceded in death by his parents, Harry Lee Dacus and Bertie Mae Holden (Dacus, Spry, Snyder); his stepparents, Louis Dan Spry, David Lee Snyder, and Mary Frances Irvin (Dacus); his brother, Randy Harvey Dacus; his sisters, Glenda Vernell Dacus (Newman) and Melinda Helen Dacus (Simmons); his wife, Patricia Ann Armbrust (Mullen, Dacus); his mother-in-law, Ruth Evelyn Gosney (Armbrust, Maidhoff); and his father-in-law, Joseph Ernest Maidhoff.

He is survived by his sons, Billy Dale Dacus Jr and Charles David Dacus; stepsons, Daniel Maurice Dacus, Michael Mullen, and John Mullen; his sisters, Nora Lee Dacus (Henson, Brizzee, Noel) and Barbara Ann Dacus (Halliday, Fernell); his brothers, Charles Ricky Dacus and Louis Dan Spry Jr; his grandson, Dallin Michael Dacus; and many adopted friends and family members.

Billy’s funeral service will be held at Collierville Funeral Home on Baileys Station in Collierville, TN, at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday March 12, 2025. It will be preceded by a viewing at 11:00 a.m. The burial will take place at the West Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery at 1:00 p.m. on the same day. Bradford-O’Keefe Funeral Home, 15th Street, Gulfport is honored to serve the Dacus family.

The family expresses their gratitude to the staff at the Bradford-O’Keefe funeral home in Gulfport, MS and the Collierville Funeral Home for helping to make the experience as smooth and pleasant as possible. We thank the members of the Holly Springs Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for organizing the funeral service. Finally, we offer gratitude to Wendy Gilmore of Gulfport, MS for acting as Billy’s caretaker for the last few months of his life.