Retired Beatrice Jewelry Store Owner, Passes Away

BEATRICE – The retired owner of a familiar downtown Beatrice Jewelry store, passed away Thursday.  Leo Billesbach was 93. Billesbach was born in Heartwell, Nebraska, graduating from high school, there.  According to the Fox Funeral Home, Billesbach served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946, in central Europe.  He married Agnes Streff in September of 1947…and the couple lived in Kansas City, where Billesbach attended the Kansas City School of Jewelry and Horology. They moved to Wilber…and then Grand Island, where Billesbach worked for Emericks Jewelry.   The couple then returned to Wilber, purchasing a jewelry store and naming it Billesbach Jewelry.  They moved to Beatrice in 1960, working for Meyer Jewelry before purchasing the business in 1963, and renaming it Leo’s Jewelry. Leo Billesbach is survived by his wife, four sons and two daughters. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held Tuesday, December 5^th, 10:30 a.m., at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church of Beatrice.   Military rites at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery will be conducted by the Bitting-Norman Post 27 of the American Legion, of Beatrice. A memorial has been established to the Alzheimer’s Association and Beatrice Community Hospital Hospice.