Bill had BFA in Advertising Design and Paining from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL. Followed by Creative Writing an Art History at Columbia College, Chicago, IL, where he did his graduate work. Bill remained in Chicago where he won many rewards for his TV Commercial and Print advertising work, including many well-known slogans.

While at Grey North in Chicago, he worked with Barbara Hyland, one of the other creators of Jem. Barbara and her husband Joe invited Bill to help create the concepts that became Jem and the Holograms so he moved to.

His mother wrote about LoRilla Davis Sanders and her book was published in 1995.

“Bill and Betty were nine years old when they began piano lessons from Naomi Westerfield in Centralia. I drove them there every Monday evening for five years. I enjoyed watching their progress and it was time well spent.

Billy Dee was a true-born artist in every sense of the word. He was musically inclined and the piano tunes flowed from his finger-tips with ease.

Billy finished his schooling at the U of I and worked many years for major advertising companies in Chicago. He made TV commercials from the east coast to the west. He also illustrated children’s books and was the creator of the Jem doll.”

“Bitter-Sweet Gum,” L. Sanders, Page 179

“It was a hard blow when we were called from a Chicago hospital to the bedside of our dying sin, Bill. It was in March of 1990.

There’s no way to express the hurt we felt while standing by his bedside holding his hand. Pneumonia has a strong grip on him and perhaps if he had called for help sooner, he would’ve won that bout, but it was not to be.

Bill’s twin sister, Betty Lee, accompanied his ashes back home were they were buried at Little Grove Cemetery, southeast of Walnut Hill. I felt stunned and numb as I stood and watched the small box placed in the earth. The days of his life flashed before me and I repeated to myself, “for dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return”

This was one of the most bitter moments of my life, and a part of me went with him.”

“Bitter-Sweet Gum,” L. Sanders, Page 196

“Losing Bill was too much, but not ever having the privilege of seeing his son, Robert, is something that should never ever happen to a grandparent. The hurt has been deep, but my love for my grandson is deep too, and if I could only shake his hand and look upon his face, it would be the next best thing to seeing Bill.”

“Bitter-Sweet Gum,” L. Sanders, Page 199

Bill Sander did draw the sketches of Clash, Danse, and Video along with the "M" plane. They are signed and dated 1985...before the 1st issue dolls came out. All three dolls had changes, but most interesting change is Clash from the black hair with sliver streaks to the purple hair, because Hasbro reused that idea for Jetta.

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For any friends or family of Bill Sanders I would love to find out as much as I can about him. If you have sketches and/or work, I would love to see photo copies or originals. I'll pay for the copies and shipping.

A Fan of Bill Sanders.

June 14th, 2003 - I finally made the 112 mile drive to Bill Sanders final resting place, and home town. I had been planning on going there for over two years ... I always thought it was going to be a really long trip. Come to find out, he grew up much close to where I grew up then I realized. It as very easy to get down to the area since the main route close to Walnut Hill is the same route that is 2 blocks from my house.

The closer I got the harder it was to find the town and cemetery. The map showed a road going in from the north, and one going in from the west. There were no signs telling you how many miles to the left, or right, was Walnut Hill. I got to where I need to be and it was like the town never existed. I drove a ways, and know I past the road I needed. I turned around and just picked a road to try. It was the right road. I came down to a stop sign and saw the water tower.

That was not the end of line for me. I drove through the town, hit a fork in the road, and followed the main road out. I did not see any signs of the church. I turned around and went back through town again, looking even closer ... still nothing. I went back though again and saw a little white sign pointing to the left. I followed it and end back at the fork in the road again. I decide just to try the other road ... and minutes later I found it.

It is very small cemetery, as I thought it would be. It only took me minutes to find what looked like the right head stone. I was very excited to see flowers at the stone. I know one cousin was still on friendly bases with him when he died, so I was not expecting much, since his surviving family was to happy about his life style. If I was one day later going down, I would have never seen the flowers because they might have been removed the very next day.

I'm assuming that the local barber shop building had a roll in young Bill's life. I don't know which house he grew up in, but if it's still standing I saw it. As I went down all 3 streets just to check it out. There is not much else that could be said about Walnut Hill then there is about twenty homes or so ... and that's that.

I originally was going to drive down there for inspiration in my own work, but I got to the point where I realized I did not need this trip for inspiration. Although I did compare and contrast Bill's life and mine (so far) and figured out that he never settled for anything less then what he wanted. He left this small town, went to college and became a successful advertising professional in Chicago, and didn't stop there. It's really sad to think what more he could have given us if he would have lived 5, 10, 20 years longer.

But at least he gave us Jem!