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99-year-old Bill Biggers of Fresno, CA appears on episode #688 of Hometown Heroes, airing July 3-8, 2021.

This episode was recorded at the Veterans Memorial Museum, home of the Legion of Valor, in downtown Fresno. The museum is open Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Biggers serves as a volunteer docent at the museum every Tuesday. Watch the video below to hear why that continued, consistent commitment is so important to the World War II Army veteran:

You’ll hear Bill remember his childhood, moving from his native Oklahoma at the age of 2, remaining the only boy alongside six sisters as his family grew, and learning how to help his father manage a large ranch in the San Joaquin Valley. Bill’s father, an accomplished baseball player in Oklahoma, had come to the Golden State to work on the M. Theo Kearney estate, which by that time had been donated to the University of California.

“My dad, when he came out here,” you’ll hear Biggers explain. “They were leveling the land using Fresno Scrapers and mules.”

His father left California to serve in the Army in World War I, married Bill’s mother upon his return, and eventually resumed both his baseball exploits and his ranch work. Young Bill started school in Orange Cove, CA while his dad was managing a ranch nearby. He remembers seeing families streaming west during the Great Depression, looking to find any kind of work they could. Bill’s list of chores at the time included milking cows, tending to saddle horses, and gathering eggs from hundreds of chickens. He watched his mother share eggs, butter, and other supplies with families in need, some of whom slept in a packing shed on the property.

“It was a sad deal,” you’ll hear Bill recall. “To see so many people out of work.”

Biggers remembers picking figs to pay for his school clothes, dreaming about becoming a machinist someday, and graduating from Orosi (CA) High School in 1939. During those high school years, he became with future Hall of Fame baseball coach Pete Beiden, and spent a good chunk of his time with twin brothers Yo and Sho Katayama. The internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry in the western U.S. meant that many of his friends were removed from their community. You’ll even hear Biggers remember how he drove one Japanese-American family to the train station for relocation.

“They wouldn’t let her keep a butcher knife,” he says of his Japanese-American neighbor, a mother of three. “So I’ve still got that butcher knife.”

Bill had married his high school sweetheart, Maureen, in 1940. He was exempt from military service because of his essential agriculture work. By 1943, Maureen had given birth to their son, Ronald. The next year, thinking he may finally be drafted into the Army, Bill attempted to enlist in the Navy. Listen to Hometown Heroes to find out how he ended up in the Army after all.