Billie Jean Rightmire at the 2019 Candy Dance.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
There was a time at The Record-Courier when a writer was assigned a story about Candy Dance that the first call was to Genoa native Billie Jean Rightmire.
Her last published work was a 2019 centennial history of the event, which is celebrating the 50th year of the arts & crafts fair Sept. 28-29.
Rightmire also authored “Cooking with the Genoa Pioneers,” in 2010, selling the book at Candy Dance.
A celebration of life for the former town historian is scheduled for 11 a.m. Aug. 31 at the Genoa Town Hall.
Rightmire, 91, died Easter Sunday on the property where she grew up, in the town where she was born.
The great-granddaughter of pioneer Genoan John Walker and granddaughter to Henry Walker, she was born Feb. 17, 1933, to Ruth Walker Byrne.
Rightmire graduated from Douglas County High School in 1951 after attending elementary school in the former Genoa Courthouse.
She married Don Rightmire in 1954, and the couple lived in Fallon for 30 years before returning to Genoa in 1985 where they purchased the former Walker house and rebuilt it the following year.
She appeared on the cover of Nevada Magazine in defense of Genoa’s claim to be the oldest settlement in the Silver State. Rightmire was named a Woman in History by the Douglas County Historical Society in 2003.
She was preceded in death by her husband Don in 2008. She is survived by sons Terry and Robin, daughter Sheryl (Lou) Dembeck, grandson Devon Rightmire and two greatgrandsons.
