Billboard Bill

Harlingen man glowing over wife’s gift

Star photo by Christy De La Garza GREAT GRANDADDY: Bill Patterson poses in front of the billboard of himself with all his great-grandchildren. Bill’s wife Eleanor thought the billboard would make a wonderful gift for her husband and that the picture was so adorable that she wanted to "share it with the world."

By KATHRYN WALSON
Valley Morning Star
HARLINGEN — One February day, Eleanor Patterson and her friend — a real-estate saleswoman — invited Eleanor’s husband, Bill Patterson, to "look at property."

Little did Bill know, the ladies had another destination in mind.

Instead of going straight on the four-lane 77 Sunshine Strip, Eleanor pulled off into the China Restaurant’s parking lot.

She parked under a nearby highway billboard, trying to give Bill’s backseat window a good view of it.

But the billboard didn’t catch his eye.

So Eleanor’s friend, Ruby Day, took action.

She pointed out the window and said, "Isn’t that an interesting billboard?"

Finally, Bill looked up and saw it — the last image he expected to see plastered to a 10- by 30-foot billboard — a blown-up picture of himself with his great-grandkids, alongside the words "Bill Patterson with his 7 Great Grandchildren."

The magnitude of the display left him speechless.

"Bill didn’t say a word," Eleanor said.

"He just started giggling. He giggled, and then he chuckled. I think he was so flabbergasted…that he didn’t say much of anything. He just chuckled."

Bill remembers being blown away.

"I didn’t know if I liked the idea or not," he said.

But as his wife started to drive home, he asked her to pass by the billboard again.

"I thought she’d gone to all this effort to do this. I had no idea what it cost, but I knew it didn’t come for nothing. And so, it gave me a very warm feeling about our relationship," he said.

Eleanor won’t reveal the billboard’s cost, not even to Bill, who she says is "very conservative" with money.

She will say that Burkett Outdoor Advertising gave her a good deal.

"It wasn’t cheap. But it wasn’t what you’d normally pay for a billboard. Anyway, I thought my husband was worth it," she said.

Willian Patterson, Jr., (Bill) and Eleanor Patterson, who didn’t want to reveal their ages, each lost two spouses before they met at Golden Palms Retirement and Health Center in Harlingen.

They married in March 1998, and have shared a spacious, sixth-floor Golden Palms apartment ever since.

They spend every summer with Bill’s kids, grandkids and great-grandkids in Auburn, N.Y.

It was there — at a family reunion last September — that family members took the photograph of Bill and his seven great-grandchildren. Their ages ranged — at the time — from one month to 20 months.

In the afternoon of the reunion, after the babies woke up from a nap, their parents lined them up on the couch for a picture.

"It was hysterical because the mothers and daddies were racing back and forth to keep them all in line," Eleanor said.

"They were falling over. The little boy was pulling the hair of the little girl."

Once the adults achieved a semblance of order, Bill ran behind the couch and posed for pictures with the babies.

Eleanor liked the picture so much that she sent it out with their Christmas cards.

Then, while driving around Harlingen, she got another idea.

"I kept noticing these new billboards going up. They were all empty. I thought, ‘That picture has to go up there,’ " she said.

So Eleanor called Burkett Outdoor Advertising in Amarillo and proposed the idea.

Jeff Burkett, the company’s vice president, deemed it a good opportunity for his company, which is new to the Rio Grande Valley.

"I thought it was a neat idea," he said.

"Not very often does a man have seven great-grandchildren — all so close in age — that he can get together for a picture."

Eleanor met the billboard people in her building’s lobby to hand over the picture and sign the papers.

She managed to keep the phone conversations and the lobby meeting a secret from her husband.

"We do our own thing anyway. I could have just been getting the mail," she said.

Since the billboard went up in February, the Pattersons’ friends and acquaintances have stopped them around town to ask about the billboard.

The picture will stay in its current location for another month, then move to other billboards around town, Burkett said.

Bill — an admittedly spotlight-shy guy — is still getting used to the publicity.

But Eleanor hopes her larger-than-life gift will grow on him.

"The children were so adorable. … I wanted to share (the picture) with the world. It was my money, so I wanted to do that just for him," she said.