DESCRIPTION:
Jo Jo Billingsley father died when she was seventeen years old. Deborah Jo had never worked a day in her life and suddenly found herself needing a job. She began singing in a local band out of high school and in late 1972 joined up with "Oil Can Harry". Deborah Jo got her first taste of life on the road when the band traveled to fifteen countries in eleven weeks. She had been with the group for sixteen months when she spoke with a friend, Bob O'Neil.He was doing lights for "Lynyrd Skynyrd" and told her the band was planning to hire some female singers.
He said the band would be performing in Nashville and asked her to attend. She accepted the invitation and sat with Bob and Kevin at the sound board during the show. Deborah Jo was told the group wanted to meet her after their performance. Jo Jo was led me through some doors and "that is where I met Skynyrd headman, Ronnie Van Zant, and Peter Rudge, who was the Skynyrd's manager as well as that of The Who".
Ronnie was sitting in a chair, bare feet propped up, and wearing a black Stetson with a rattlesnake band around it. He pushed the hat up and said, "She'll do just fine." He then asked me if I would like to go on the road and sing with the band." -- Jo Jo joined the band that night.
Jo Jo said, "I traveled the world three times with Skynyrd. We hit major cities around the world during the three and one-half years I was with the band. We flew in during the morning and flew out at night. Every show was sold out."
Jo Jo was at home with her mother since August of 1977. Two nights before the crash, Ronnie called me at my mother's home. He wanted me to fly to Greenville, South Carolina and rejoin the band. Their schedule called for them to do a show in Greenville then Baton Rouge and then Little Rock. Since I was within driving distance of Little Rock I told him I would join them there."
That night Deborah Jo had a horrible dream. "I didn't know it at the time, but the Holy Spirit was warning me," she said. "The night Ronnie called, I had a dream their plane was gonna crash. I made desperate phone calls to all the names on the list in Greenville, but couldn't reach anyone.
Finally, Allen Collins, a guitarist for the group, returned my call. He said, "There are messages all over town from you." I told him about my dream and begged them not to fly on the plane. He told me he had seen fire coming out from one of the engines earlier. I told him that only reaffirmed my fears. He was to talk to the other members and call me back. Later, he did call and told me the band had voted to fly commercial after that flight and that would be their last time on that plane -and it was!
"The next day some friends and I were in Memphis celebrating my return to Skynyrd when the phone rang, Deborah Jo said. It was my mother. She was trying to tell me something, but was crying and couldn't speak. She put my brother, Neal, on the phone and he told me about the crash."
The crash devastated Deborah Jo. She still has emotional scars but is overcoming with Jesus' help.
Deborah Jo said. "I was close to all members of the group killed, but especially, Ronnie, because he always liked me to ride with him in his limo so he could talk to me. Also, Cassie, because we had known each other for several years before Skynyrd, when we worked together in Memphis."
In February of 1985 she came back to the Lord in a little Baptist church in Texas. "I had drifted away from the Lord over a period of years," Deborah Jo said. "I shut the door to God after the death of my father. I even thought God was mad at me for a while due to my lack of knowledge of His Word. I then got mad at God when I should have gotten mad at the devil. All the time the Lord had loved, forgave and restored me and He is still working miracles in my life. I gave him my confusion and broken life. He gave me peace, joy, and a purpose and plan to live his life through me. It was a blessing to realize God loved me so very much and saved my life."