If you copy this information, please cite this as your source:

Betsy Mills and Ron Brothers. The Death and Cemetery Records of Lamar County, Texas, ReBroMa Press, 2008, http://www.lamarcountytx.org/cemetery. (12/16/2025)

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, Oct. 7, 1961: “PARIS, TEXAS- Funeral services were held here Thursday for Mrs. Ben L. Billingsley, Sr. 90. She died in a Paris hospital. Burial was in Evergreen Cemetery. The former Miss Effie Roland, Mrs. Billingsley was born in the Sylvan community, August 6, 1871. Her husband Ben L. Billingsley Sr., was a Paris civic leader, president of the old Johnson-Billingsley Hardware Co. here and cashier of the former American National Bank. He died in 1944.”

IN MEMORIAM - Effie Rowland Roland Billingsley - We, of Lamar Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, extend to the family of our deceased member, Effie Rowland Roland Billingsley, our sympathy over your and our great loss in the homegoing of your mother. She made her presence felt among us by her sweet and gentle ways to the extent that when she was absent, the question went the rounds, ‘Where is Mrs. Billingsley? Is she sick?’ Her submissive way bore mute testimony to the one in Whose footsteps she followed, and was felt by all who knew her. We know that ‘absent from the body is present with the Lord,’ and though we miss her presence, yet we rejoice with her that she is at home with the Lord she loved and served. To her dear ones, we would say, so let us run the race that is set before us that we too may join the caravan which moves to that mysterious realm, sustained and soothed by the same unfaltering trust that was hers. We have read this Memoriam in our meeting of November 10, 1961, placed it upon the minutes of our chapter, and send to you a copy thereof. Respectfully submitted, Memorial Committee, Lamar Chapter, United Daughters of Confederacy.

Information from Texas Death Certificate:
Name: Effie Roland Billingsley
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 03 Oct 1961
Event Place: Paris, Lamar, Texas, United States
Gender: Female
Marital Status: Widowed
Birth Date: 06 Aug 1871
Birthplace: Sylvan, Texas
Father’s Name: William H Roland
Mother’s Name: Lydia Ridley
Certificate Number: 59793
GS Film number: 2116855
Digital Folder Number: 005145528
Image Number: 02161
Citing this Record: “Texas Deaths, 1890-1976,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K3HZ-QS9 : 13 March 2018), Lydia Ridley in entry for Effie Roland Billingsley, 03 Oct 1961; citing certificate number 59793, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm 2,116,855.

Effie was admitted as a member of Lamar Chapter, #258 in March 1918, using her father as a soldier in the CSA. W. H. Roland was in Co. K., 9th Infantry, Texas Regiment.

Information from Charles Roland McCain, Denison, stoneprof@texoma.net: Effie Roland had seven children, six survived childhood. From early adulthood she was deeply interested in genealogy and became well known for her knowledge of the history of the area and of the Roland/Rowland family in Northeast Texas. In her youth she attended the Richardson Private School in Paris and Daughters College at Herrodsburg, KY. In 1895 she married B. L. Billingsley. She was active in work at the First Christian Church which she helped form early in the 20th Century. She made frequent out of town trips to sites where her ancestors lived and wrote numerous letters to people about Texas and especially North Texas history. She collected letters from her ancestors including the Civil War. She kept a diary in the form of letters with a historical spin of her travels in the area, always bringing in historical events of the places she visited. Many of her writings are in archives in Texas. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Confederacy, and the American Legion Auxiliary of Post 30 in Paris as well as being a strong supporter of the Lamar County Historical Association. She lived to be 90 years old. She was the last of the Rolands often spelled with a ‘w’ in other family histories. She died in Paris on 3 Oct 1961, aged 90.
   Effie’s mother was Lydia Everett (Ridley) Roland who ‘was one of the pioneer school teachers of Lamar County, having taught at Moore’s Springs and Maxey when she was hardly grown.’ [The Paris (Lamar County) Morning News, 4 Oct 1924]. She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Lloyd (Effie Roland) Billingsley in Paris at 154 (now 630) Pine Bluff St, widowed, aged 81 years, on 10 Jan 1924.