Billy Dan Kline, age 90, passed away on October 15, 2025.

Billy Dan Kline has been received into the arms of our Lord, Born August 7th, 1935, Deceased and raised to Christ, October 15, 2025.

Billy’s death is preceded by that of his oldest son, Michael Floyd Kline. He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Nancy Sue Kline (Tubbs), his son Kevin David Kline, daughter Kimberly Sue Webb, and son Kenneth Daniel Kline.

In high school, Billy met the love of his life - Nancy Sue Tubbs. Nancy was the younger sister of his high school buddy Charlie Tubbs, a verified rascal. However, sometimes the stars align, and it was Charlie’s idea that Billy should take Nancy on a date, so Billy did so on Charlie’s recommendation. Billy was a devoted husband and father for nearly 70 of his 90 years.

Billy was born in poverty at the height of the American Great Depression, the youngest child of poor parents who struggled to maintain normalcy as working class folk, overwhelmed by the factors of their time while attempting to raise a family of 3 small children. As his youngest son, I remember Billy telling me that he felt his parents never really recovered from the desperation of the Great Depression. It shaped them for their remaining lives.

However, and somehow - very likely as a function of his deep belief in the Gospel of Christ and the increasing optimism of post-WW 2 America - Billy was not a defeatist. Rather, he determined at a very early age that he would self-improve, attend college, overcome the attitudes of his parents, and prosper.

Billy was a good student, and an avid absorber of mathematics both abstract and practical. However, he realized before attending college that pure, abstract mathematics would likely lead to teaching positions and similar, which was not a career path that interested him. So he pursued Accounting as a profession, and the fundamental basis for his life from then on was shaped by his Christian philosophy and his pursuit of a career in Accounting.

Nancy and Billy dated seriously, with Billy then attending Louisiana Tech University, and Nancy attending Abilene College - seemingly a world away. When Nancy attended one semester of college and her father told her she had to choose between college, and Billy, it was, in Billy’s words “a pretty short meeting”. Billy graduated from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, married Nancy and took a weekend honeymoon, and started work at Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company the following Monday morning. A lengthy, productive first career of 30+ years ensued at what would become ArkLa, Inc., a Fortune 500 publicly traded company.

Billy started in the Tax Department, and quickly rose to head of the same, then continued to be upwardly mobile. Billy either thrived, or thoroughly understood and adapted to, a scaled corporate environment. He embodied and represented the essence of company man, while eschewing the seedy sides of man-dominated corporate culture from the 50s through the early 80s: a function of his Christian faith. Over the years Billy rose through the ranks, ultimately handling a basket of responsibilities for ArkLa as a NYSE-traded company, including being Treasurer, Corporate Secretary, and Senior Vice President - Corporate Finance. Apart from titles, there were the personalities with whom he engaged or had to manage at some level due to his position with a publicly traded utility monopoly - Bill Clinton, Mack McClarty, Whit Stevens, Jerry Jones, and many others within a close knit class of politics, wealth and influence. Stress was a function of the job, though personally, I witnessed many times that Billy was in many senses, a master of ceremonies in his personal engagement with people ranking above and “below” him. During these years, he raised a family, weathered the late 60s and 70s, and was respected as a Deacon and Elder within the Churches of Christ in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Interestingly, the cross pollination of the Accounting discipline and in a very real sense, being the “final say” in terms of Accounting and Corporate Finance at a Fortune 500 level, and his Christian faith, resulted in some firmly held beliefs. Billy wasn’t just “right” or had an opinion to be considered - in his mind - he was ultimately Correct and Right.

After his retirement from ArkLa, Billy and Nancy made a decision to uproot from Shreveport, Louisiana and move to Branson, Missouri in the early 1990s. Retirement didn’t last long, as a small retail store Nancy set up in Louisiana became VHC Brands, founded in Branson in 1995. VHC adjusted and adapted over the years from a small boutique wholesale vendor, to an import company with offices in Missouri and India with sales to mass retailers and 1000s of smaller and specialty retailers across the US, Canada, the UK and even Japan. VHC continues to operate and grow after 30 years in business.

Through his VHC Brands years, what I always found fascinating was his ability to use Accounting to smooth out issues and problems, and in fact, make problems go away. What I thought was a problem or roadblock, Billy would see as an Accounting function and a clever way to manage some journal entry. A situation seemingly never came up wherein he did not have prior experience, Accounting-wise. On the other hand, we often joked that VHC was an accounting firm that happened to produce revenue selling textiles.

There were many Billy-isms that floated through any given day, used a shorthand summary of a thought or situation, along with his habit of whistling. With a tendency to be judgmental, he would say “the fox is in the henhouse”, “ that was a case of might poor judgment”, “don’t major in minors”, “a fool and his money are soon parted”, and many more summaries to label circumstances.

As a function of his role as Senior VP - Corporate Finance at ArkLa, I learned a lot sitting at the table from a young age through co-owning VHC Brands with Billy. He implemented many protocols at VHC Brands that were very uncommon for a smaller business, taken from his lengthy executive experience in the corporate world. Very many of these are still in place and have stood the test of 30+ years. The guiding principle of all the various things he implemented was - regularity and normalcy. Bills were approved and paid weekly at the same time each week, the receivables were tended to at the same time each week, etc. All of this imposed normalcy was sacred to Billy, much like Sunday Communion, and established a rhythm of professionalism and a strong framework in which to operate and flourish. While it sometimes felt, under Billy’s guidance, we were operating an Accounting Firm that happened to have revenue from Home Textiles, the systems were and are a lasting legacy.

Billy and Nancy retired from VHC in 2020 when the Pandemic started. Billy stated that this time, it would be “actual” retirement, though they continued to stay busy gardening, managing flea market booths, and attending church. True to form for Billy - he continued his schedule of tending to the sacred rites of balancing the check book, reviewing the grocery bill, looking for invoices in the daily mail, and similar.

Graveside service will be held at 1 PM, October 20th, 2025, at Ozark’s Memorial Park Cemetery, Branson, MO under the direction of Snapp-Bearden Funeral Home & Crematory, Branson.