KILLEEN — Jessie Bishop was born and raised in tiny Lake Providence, La., went to college to become a teacher, married her high school sweetheart who became a senior noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army, and began a life of adventure and accomplishment she never imagined.
“To move from a small town in Louisiana and to be in a military community, it was very rewarding for me,” the 83-year-old Killeen resident said. “I learned so much and I was able to participate and do things that I was not aware of while living in Lake Providence.
“Once joining the military, it was just an altogether new environment for me, which I embraced and loved.”
Lake Providence is a town of a few thousand located near the borders with Mississippi and Arkansas. Bishop’s father was a carpenter by trade but worked mostly as a laborer, and she graduated from high school in 1957. Following in the footsteps of her mother and three sisters, she went on to become a school teacher after graduating from Grambling State University with a bachelor’s degree in business education. Years later, she earned a master’s in guidance and counseling from Virginia State University.
She and her late husband, Charlie, married in 1963 when she was working as a school teacher in Lake Providence and he was a sergeant in the Army.
For the first four years of their marriage, Jessie and Sgt. Bishop lived in separate parts of the world.
“We said goodbye after we got married and he went off to Germany,” she said. “When he came back from Germany, Vietnam was gearing up and he knew he would be going, so I just stayed in Lake Providence.”
Charlie served one combat tour in Vietnam, then came back to the States in 1967 and was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., where the couple was finally reunited, and Jessie officially began life as a military spouse. She soon became a stay-at-home mom when their first and only child was born and became active in the NCO Wives’ Club and other post activities.
“I enjoyed it,” she said. “I just couldn’t find a job. Not a teaching job in business, because schools didn’t have a lot of business teachers. Then I found out I was pregnant. I had taken a civil service exam for clerk-typist and I was called for a job at Pope Air Force Base, adjoining Fort Bragg, but I didn’t accept that because I was going to stay with my child.”
After three years at Bragg, the Bishops were transferred to Germany for three years, then back to Fort Lee, Va., and then another overseas tour in Korea. Sometimes, living overseas can be a challenge for military spouses, but Bishop said for her it was more of a welcome adventure.
“It wasn’t really difficult for me, but it was an eye-opener,” she said. “I was just glad to be somewhere that I had read about. It was very exciting. I was a member of the NCO Club, and I bowled, and we took trips to France and other places.
“I loved Korea. We were there for two years, and I worked in the BSEP (basic skills education program) program, where you taught the soldiers math and English.”
Charlie finished his 24-year career as a master sergeant in 1984 at Fort Hood, where Jessie worked as a counselor at the Education Center and in civilian personnel until she retired in 2011.
“That was a very interesting experience,” she said. “I think it was one of the most memorable jobs I ever had. I was in the training division, and I trained civilians in their jobs, and some soldiers, because I was head of supervisory development, which trained civilian and military supervisors.
“Then there was a big reduction in force. The counselors were placed in other positions, and I was lucky enough to get a job at civilian personnel here at Fort Hood, in the training division. I worked in civilian personnel for 10 years, until the training department was reorganized, and I was lucky enough to get a job back at the Army Education Center.”
After she finished her career, the Bishops enjoyed three years of retirement together until Charlie died in 2014. He is buried at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery in Killeen.
Looking back at their 50 years of marriage and life together in the military, Jessie says she has a lifetime of good memories and does not regret a thing.
“For me, it was very rewarding,” she said. “When I graduated from college, I had a teaching degree, and I had teaching certificates for different states that we lived in — Virginia, North Carolina — but I never got a teaching position.
“When we were in Korea and I worked in the education office, the people there told me about an intern program that with a degree I could get into civil service at a mid-level position, instead of a clerk-typist. So when we returned to Fort Lee, I applied to the intern program and I received a position there at Fort Lee, which enabled me to move from a GS-5 to a GS-9 in the program. That was when I received my master’s degree because I could get tuition assistance through the military.
“My son grew up in the military and he enjoyed it, too. He participated in a lot of activities. He played soccer; was on the swimming team. When we were in Germany, I taught typing and military correspondence. While we were in Korea, I taught English to four Korean students. That was another interesting part of my life. They were university students, and they introduced me to Korea. They took me to Seoul University to speak to some of the students there, and after coming here, I used to correspond with one of them who married and came here and was at the University of Iowa. I don’t know how we lost contact, but they were interesting people and I enjoyed meeting them.”
These days, the mother of one and grandmother of one lives a quiet life, working in the local chapter of her college sorority and singing in her church choir on post.
“I don’t know if I really have a hobby,” she said. “When I was younger, I did a lot of things. I played piano, and as soon as I started traveling with the military, I attended chapel choir, so I always sang in the choir. I have done a lot of things, and I just say I’m good at none of them.
“I served as president of my sorority for three different terms, before I retired. Also before I retired, I was in the groundwork for the Fort Hood Habitat for Humanity. I was one of the members of the very first selection team. I did interviews for people who were applying for houses, gave workshops to teach them how to apply, and for a short time, I was a board member.
“For me, it has been a wonderful life.”