William Henry Stallings, Jr., aged 85, passed away peacefully on December 29, 2024, at Transitions LifeCare, after a hard 9-month battle with cancer. He was born on February 10, 1939, in Beaufort, N.C., to Lela Belle (Smith) and William Henry Stallings.

As a little child during World War II, Bill and his family lived in Goldsboro, where his dad William, a World War I U.S. Navy Veteran, worked as a police officer.

Bill spent a good part of his childhood growing up as a middle child in Roanoke Rapids. Raised in the Catholic Church, Bill served as an altar boy. He earned his Eagle Scout recognition in the mid-1950s while in Roanoke Rapids.

Then his family moved to Raleigh where he attended Broughton High School. When his family moved to Rush Street, he transferred to Garner High for his senior year. Bill met the love of his life, Kay Francis Lee, when they were at Garner High. Graduating from Garner together, Bill and Kay were married on October 4, 1959.

Bill served in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Jackson, S.C. He was a truck driver in the motor pool. Due to health issues, Bill was transferred from the base hospital to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1962, he was honorably discharged.

In 1963, William Henry III (Bill) was born, and he became known in the family as Little Bill to his dad's Big Bill. The family grew again in 1966 when Barry Lee was born.

Bill worked for 15 years for A&P Grocery Store where he worked his way up from bagger to manager to handling the grand openings of their new stores.

He and Kay built a house on her family farm in 1970, making four generations of the Lee family living on the farm. As an active member of McCullers Ruritan for two decades, Bill assumed a leadership role when he served as President and Vice-President during his membership.

Bill left A&P to work for the N.C. Department of Labor as an apprenticeship representative. He retired from the State of North Carolina in the late 1990s.

During retirement, he spent a lot of time working on the Lee Farm, managing rentals, and checked in on sons Bill and Barry, who also built houses on the Lee Farm. Bill cared for his wife Kay for a decade during her illness before her death in 2006.

Bill enjoyed traveling the world, fishing, and had a green thumb – planting trees, bushes and flowers.