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Speaker 1: William Billy Overstreet served his country in two wars and has had several careers. But it wasn't until his retirement that he was able to pursue his lifelong dream of writing and publishing a book. Adult education helped make his dream a reality.

William Billy Overstreet: I was with the 100th Division, and I'm glad I got out of them, but in my outfit, only seven people came back. After I got out, I went to the University of Georgia. And when the Korean deal started, I signed up to go in the Navy.

Finally got into the LA County after starving to death about three times. I got into LA County, and it was with the Department of Animal Control. And I thought, well, when I get in here, I'll get out of that and get into something a little better. And I just loved it. And so I stayed with them for, oh, it's about 18 years, I guess.

And then I bought my military time back while I was there, and so that give me enough time to retire and get a little money for it. Why I retired was I had a heart attack. In fact, I had two before it was over. And really, I thought I was going to die. I didn't even renew my real estate license because I thought I was gone.

And I don't know. I came down here and started working out at the gym and just got better and better. And then I found out about the school over here, and I started going to it. And I had this book, and I wanted a little help with it, and I got it here.

John Kerr: I think the neat thing about Billy is he came in with a definite goal. He came in, and he knew-- he was retired. He had a dream. He wanted to be a writer.

And the question was how could we help him? It was the writing, the spelling, and putting his book together is where he really needed the support. So he was getting the technical skills as far as using the technology, but it really came down to when Denise and I started talking to him working on his writing skills.

Denise Tornatore: Well, what was unique about Billy was that he had a dream and a goal. And when I met him a couple years back, he approached me at the senior center, and he was at the weight training class, and he came out to speak to me. And we spoke for about 15 or 20 minutes, and he discussed that he had this desire to write a book. And his real concern was that he had the idea and he had the motivation, but he was very concerned with the idea that he couldn't really put it together, and he was concerned about spelling.

William Billy Overstreet: Came over here, and I met these people, and they just did it just right. It just worked out wonderful for me. And the teachers there helped me quite a bit. He would sit down. He and I would go together, and we would read the book over and edit it, more or less.

Denise Tornatore: Introduced him to a couple of the teachers because we have the program here in the morning, the afternoon, and in the evening. We let him know that it was an open program, that he could work it around his very busy schedule, and kind of left it at that. And every so often, I would see him up here, and he would wave and so forth, and ask him how he's doing, and he was always very enthusiastic, saying he was getting that project done.

And by and behold one day, he entered my office with the book completed. And I think what really makes me feel really proud of him and good is that he had this dream, and he was so intense and passionate about it. And I believe through the team effort of everyone here and all the classes helped him fulfill that dream.

John Kerr: We did something that made a difference for this person. We really helped someone who came from the veteran generation, who put in his time in the military, didn't really have time to follow the dreams he wanted to follow, gave a lot to everybody in my generation to come out with some kind of a dream. And you're there to help facilitate that. Once you retire, you have to have a goal. You have to look at some kind of a dream you want to follow. And Billy is just, like, a great example of that.

Denise Tornatore: We are very proud of his accomplishments, and we hope that other seniors will see this and hear about this and know that it's never too old to fulfill your dreams and to meet your goals.