Billy D. Collins: "The Mellow Dynamo" of Tucson Business
Billy D. Collins—son of Willard Collins, former pastor of the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and father of William (Bill) David Collins—was profiled as a driven Tucson businessman who combined aggressive real-estate/hotel investing with occasional political activism. The 1980 Arizona Daily Star piece portrays him as intensely private yet fast-moving, managing far-flung distressed-property turnarounds while remaining remembered locally for his role in a 1976 property-tax protest and support of an anti-incumbent county supervisor campaign.
Billy Collins—son of Willard Collins, former pastor of the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana—built a reputation as a hard-driving businessman who blended private ambition with occasional public disruption. Collins is named in the Intent to Sue documentation prepared by Gerald Lee Walker and Sarah Branham. According to Walker, Collins was involved with questionable real estate transactions along with Pearry Green, pastor of the Tucson Tabernacle. Both Collins and Green were involved (separately) in organized crime lawsuits.
At his funeral, one of William Branham's sons boasted Billy could fly them into Mexico on a moment's notice without a filed flight plan or proper clearances, which can trigger serious cross-border aviation and customs violations if the claim is accurate. International general-aviation trips typically require complying with U.S. and Mexican rules, including advance passenger/crew manifest submission (APIS/eAPIS) and border/airport-of-entry procedures with customs and immigration on both sides, along with the applicable flight/operational regulations for a U.S.-registered aircraft outside the United States.
A profile published in The Arizona Daily Star[1] describes Collins as a 33-year-old, self-made real-estate and hotel investor whose work regularly pulled him across multiple states—and even overseas. The same profile ties his name to a 1976 property-tax revolt in Tucson, when he helped organize landowners who withheld a portion of their taxes to protest Pima County Supervisor Ron Asta's growth-restricting approach, later backing Katie Dusenberry in her successful challenge against Asta.
Collins' business life, as portrayed in the newspaper account, centered on acquiring underperforming properties and rebuilding them. Several of his hotels in Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania were purchased in distress; one example cited in the profile describes raising occupancy from 17% to 90%, then expanding the property. The routine described runs long—often beginning early in the morning and extending late at night—with travel used as a tool of management rather than a luxury.
The newspaper account also sketches a carefully controlled personal world. Collins lived near La Cholla Air Park and kept aviation close—using a King Air aircraft to move between projects—while maintaining a strong emphasis on family privacy. Collins and his wife, Susan Elaine, had four sons, each bearing "William D. Collins" as a shared name, distinguished by middle names (David, Daniel, Dale, and Dean). The profile adds an unusual detail about Collins' own name: he claimed to have found a birth certificate listing "William D. Collins," with "William" crossed out and "Billy" written in.
At home, the portrait mixes restraint with high-end tastes: imported furnishings, musical instruments purchased for his wife, and a collection of vehicles that included a Rolls-Royce and a low-mileage 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, along with an Elvis Presley motorcycle acquired through Tennessee connections. Despite the pace, Collins is quoted describing business as constant pressure—something that demanded hustling, vigilance, and flexible priorities.