If anyone would like to draw a really nice picture of Jim Varney, and send it in, we will put that picture in this spot on this page. You can send your pictures to, Billy Dee, P.O. Box 91, Merrimac, Wis. 53561. And thanks and God Bless!

A personal letter from Jims best friend.

Below, are parts from several letters from a close friend that knew and loved Jim. These parts show a personal glimpse of Jim Varney in his public and private life. I give God the Glory for finding Jim and taking him home to heaven.

Billy Dee

Good Morning Billy, my new friend.

This will be from a very personal point of view about the man I knew and was close to for 30 years. Another close friend of his and I are going to collaborate on it...

Jim was unique in that he could instantly "read" what made other people tick and go right there with them. Because I knew him personally, I now see a lot of irony in some of the comments coming to light from people he was around that he wasn't all that close to. But I will keep that insight close to my vest for another story. Suffice it to say that he was always, always a gentleman, even as a young man of 21. You could always count on him...you could take him home to meet your family (and I did :)) without fearing he would embarrass you or that they wouldn't accept him. He was a host unparalleled...anything he had he would offer you to make you comfortable. That was "Jim" even when he was the true epitome (and believe me he was) of the starving actor. He was very much a giver. He was very much a lover of knowledge, a photographic memory, and a mind like a whip when it came to understanding. "With all thy getting, get some wisdom" was a creed he lived by and shared with others. Ernest was true acting. If you want to get a glimpse of the true Jim Varney, go watch Beverly Hillbillies a few times.

That movie just took my breath away every time I watched it; it was a showcase for him as he truly was. I heard recently that he would never let himself be photographed with a cigarette because he was afraid the "kids" would see it, and think it was o.k. to smoke. He touched hundreds of children through the "Make a Wish" foundation, and almost NO ONE ever knew. He did not do that for acclaim, he did it to bring some joy to the children he touched...and in the last few years of his life, one of his longings was to have a child of his own. He asked me so many times to bring my son to visit...but I live in Texas, and Jim fell ill when my child was 18 months old...by the time I knew, Jim was too ill to enjoy my boy.

I appreciate you writing to me very much, I would love to hear from you. I support your work totally. I had begged Jim to work with me on a website for him, and he felt it would be blasphemous to do that himself...however, my perspective was that his life truly mattered. I know the deep, deep stories behind his life, and the things he experienced, some of the mistakes he made, the love he always projected so well and not so well, deserve recognition...because they may help someone who is barely holding on, suffering with some of the things he did. Jim was so compassionate, you will never know. That's why he always stopped and talked with his fans - he didn't stop for just anyone; he wouldn't stop for someone trying to use/abuse their power, but he would stop for someone who needed him on some level and he always knew who those folks were. You were obviously one of them.

He loved the Lord, Jesus Christ. I think he felt very unworthy, but I know he tried to live up to the Lord in his heart...we talked about it many times. So, in whatever undertaking you decide, if you will give the Glory to God, I feel He will support your endeavors. Please pray that God will give me the ability to write a beautiful story about our "Hill William Jim" with a little help from his friends and, bless his heart, Jim himself, because he left me some very precious words of his own to use.

Best wishes to you and your family, and as Jim said to me when I visited him in October, 1999, "this is just a bus stop on the way to somewhere infinitely better." Love,

Myra

Parts from other letters from Myra about Jim

Yes, Jim smoked heavily. Cigarettes, cigars and pipes. He had quite a collection of pipes, and he loved knives and guns. He was quite an outdoorsman, even when we were in our youth. He used to take me out in the fields beyond the Pioneer Playhouse and do his target practice with a 450 magnum. Scared me to death. However, he was a master with guns, knives and bows & arrows and loved them. He could tell you the entire history of knives and war and all that stuff. He was a real history buff.

Myra

Further Parts From Other Letters.

Jim suffered from manic-depression (or bi-polar disease which I guess is the politically correct term for it) all his life. As much as he made others laugh, he had a lot of heartaches, He was saved in the late 70's. I remember it, because he told me about it in 1986 and it had been several years before that. He said he realized one day that he was never going to get anywhere in life if he didn't accept Christ as his savior and did a 180 degree turn. He drank a lot and partied a lot (to be expected considering his profession) before then, but he told me he gave up alcohol altogether about the same time or shortly after he got saved. Like me, I suppose, he figured the one vice he had left (smoking) he ought to be allowed to have since he gave up so many others. It turned out to be the one that killed him. Although, actually, it's my understanding that they got the cancer in his lung, and then it spread to his brain but I thought they had gotten that too. It was his back that took him down. When I was there, he was already suffering pain in his back - he thought it was the radiation flaring up an old injury he got from falling while he was trying to ski during the Snow board Academy movie. He also had some emotional let downs after I was there, that I won't go into at this time, but I think Varney died as much from giving up as anything. I think he was very tired of it all, if you get my drift, not to mention that his body had suffered so. But of course, none of us really know but God. The last time I talked to him was in mid-January, and he could barely talk then, and was sort of incoherent from pain medication.

Myra

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