Trapeze artist always lived his life in full flight

GIBSONTON — Many trapeze artists have memorized this part of Newton's first law:

An object in motion tends to stay in motion …

That's why they're so careful when gliding from one swing to the next. They're always in motion, thinking about where the next move will take them.

That's also how retired Gibsonton circus performer Billy Rodgers lived his life.

Mr. Rodgers died Monday from colon cancer. He was 74.

During his career, Mr. Rodgers became famous for his risky aerial moves under the big top.

He wasn't born into the circus. Mr. Rodgers grew up in Orwell, Ohio, the son of a letter carrier who died when he was 2 and a mother who tolerated his craving for flight.

As a teen, he remade himself into Billy Orwell, the "Peerless Performer of the Cloud Swing." He somersaulted 40 feet above the ground without a net below.

"He became renowned throughout the world for his daring aerial display," Ward Hill eulogized Wednesday in a service packed with circus people.

Ken Dodd, 71, who teamed up with Mr. Rodgers on aerial stunts in the 1950s, said Mr. Rodgers knew the risks of his trade.

"You love it. It's a high because you're doing what you love to do," Dodd said. "If you fall you may be crippled, or you may not come out alive," he added.

Mr. Rodgers was never seriously hurt while performing. But in 1968, an 18-wheel gravel truck ran over part of his car.

The accident shortened one of his legs and ended his aerial career, but not his association with the circus.

Billy Orwell became a pirate, complete with a limp, who commanded hundreds of birds on stage. His cockatoos, macaws and parrots hung by their beaks, pushed miniature wheelbarrows and did pretty much whatever else Mr. Rodgers asked of them.

The show played for audiences at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, SeaWorld in Ohio and Busch Gardens in Tampa.

In 1979, Mr. Rodgers opened Pirates Treasure Cove on U.S. 41 in Gibsonton, where he made performers' costumes and sold theatrical supplies. The store still operates.

"When people saw his truck, the women were thrilled," circus veteran Cindy Wells said. "Because he had tights, rhinestones, sequins. He'd get everybody stocked up."

He stayed in the circus world for 21 years as a board member of the International Independent Showmen's Association, and 10 as chairman of the Gibsonton Showman's Circus. He developed a 10-acre mobile home park and rented to circus people. They were his family. He never married.

As his cancer spread in recent months, friends suspected the end was near.

But Mr. Rodgers was still trying to stay in motion.

Friday, just three days before he died, he looked at Dodd from his hospital bed.

"Where are my shoes?" he asked.

Andrew Meacham can be reached at ameacham@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2431.