Submitted photo

Billy Joe Hunt of Greenup County, Ky., enjoyed hunting all his life. Pictured here in late-2009, Hunt died in July 2010.

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RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY

PDT Staff Writer

Hundreds of hunters filled the Greenup County Wildlife Club this month to remember their late-friend — lifelong hunting enthusiast Billy Joe Hunt, of Greenup County, Ky.

Hunt was an enthusiastic hunter for nearly 30 years. He participated in state and national hunts with his hunting dogs.

“He bred and raised and trained original mountain cur. That’s the only kind (of dog) he worked with. He had done that for probably 25 or 30 years,” said his wife, Mary Hunt. “I always told him he thought more of his dogs than he did anything else, and he laughed about it.”

Hunt was also a member of the Original Mountain Cur Breeders Association Board of Directors (OMCBA) in Jamestown, Tenn.

Hunt died July 29, 2010. In his memory, 200 people participated in a memorial hunt at Greenup County Wildlife Club on April 6-7, organized by a close friend Donny Robinson and sanctioned by the OMCBA.

“It was not a hunt-kill. The dogs are treeing dogs, and any animals that they treed they would get points,” Mary Hunt said.

Trophies were awarded for the most points and one winner took home a new gun. Hunters came from Ohio, Kentucky and as far as Louisiana to swap stories about their friend Billy Joe Hunt.

“I cried. I was just amazed. I didn’t realize that they thought that much of him,” Mary Hunt said from behind tears.

She said she hopes they can do it again next year with equal success.

Ryan Scott Ottney can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.