Billy Ray "Goat" Milam

A celebration of life is planned for Billy Ray “Goat” Milam at Blanchard-St. Denis Funeral Home in Natchitoches. Visitation will be Thursday, Sept. 5 from 5 – 7 p.m. The funeral service will be Friday, Sept. 6 at 10:30 a.m. with the Rev. Tommy Rush officiating.  Burial will be at 3 p.m. in the Cotton Valley Cemetery in Cotton Valley where he was born and raised. In high school, Bill was a big football star and won a football scholarship to Northwestern State College where he made many friends.  He went to Korea and enlisted in the paratroopers.  He came home from Korea because his mother was dying of cancer and the war was almost over, then married his sweetheart, Ruth Toms. Bill was an avid outdoorsman and loved to hunt and fish.  He was an encyclopedia of homemade remedies, hunting and tracking game tips and the signs indicating imminent changing weather. He built several pirogues with his own pattern using fiberglass and no nails.  Bill had a unique way of taming squirrels to eat peanuts out of his pocket.  Once he brought two baby goats home he found in the woods on Christmas Eve and they had to be fed with baby bottles! Bill was preceded in death by his parents, Noble and Eula Milam; brothers, Jack Milam and Dewitt Milam; sister-in-law, Emogene Milam; and niece, Jacque Milam. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Ruth Toms Milam; daughter, Taryn Stephanie Miles and husband John; son, Stephen Ray Milam and wife Ann; grandchildren, John Wesley Colwell and wife Leslie, Christopher Kyle Colwell and wife Melodie, Ashley Paige Beck and husband Tommy, and Stephen Cody Milam; step-grandchildren, Kealey Barnes, Lindsey Miles, Lou Ann Hicks, Bridget Bushnell and Chad Nelson; and numerous great-grands.