{"id":37361,"date":"2026-05-06T16:43:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=37361"},"modified":"2026-05-06T16:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T21:43:26","slug":"matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Matthew Everett Billingsley, 25, of Salem, Illinois, went to be with the Lord on Saturday, May 2, 2026, at St. Louis University Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>Matt was born on November 1, 2000, in Mattoon, Illinois, to Kevin and Jennifer (Traub) Billingsley. As a boy, Matt was \u201call boy.\u201d He loved being outside, playing cars, getting dirty, hunting, and playing any paintball or airsoft. He loved to ride four-wheelers, even \u201cout mudding\u201d his dad at times. At heart, Matt was a pure Momma\u2019s boy. He graduated from Full Armor Christian Academy in 2018. From Full Armor, he went straight into serving his country in the United States Army. He was proud to be a 4th-generation Army soldier. Matt married Megan Johnson on November 18, 2023. He was a devoted husband and incredible father to their precious son, Levi, who turned 1 in March. He loved his family, was a loving son, brother, and a faithful follower of Jesus. To know Matt was to know kindness, loyalty, and selflessness. He would give anything to help others and always put family first. Matt loved the simple joys, Hot Wheels, pizza, cheesecake, ice cream, board games, hunting, and spending time with family, friends, and his dogs. He faithfully served on the security team at church and lived his life as a true example of faith and compassion. He wanted his loved ones who didn\u2019t know Jesus to be saved.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew is survived by his wife; son; parents; sister, Elizabeth (Jakob) Logan; nieces, Adah Jane Logan and Judah June Logan; father-in-law, Michael Johnson; maternal grandmother, Theresa Traub; paternal grandfather, Kevin Billingsley; paternal grandmother, Virginia Larrimore; aunts and uncles, Tonni (Michael) Micklautz, Justin (Tammy) Traub, Matthew (Jolinda) Stephenson; and many cousins.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew is preceded in death by his maternal grandfather, Michael Traub; great-grandparents, Victor and Mabel Traub and Benny and Cora Ballard; and his boyhood dog, Riggs.<\/p>\n<p>A funeral ceremony will be held at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Frank &amp; Bright Funeral Home in Flora. A visitation will be held from 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. on Saturday at the funeral home. Private interment will take place at Orchard Hill Cemetery, Louisville, with the presentation of military funeral honors. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Matt\u2019s memory can be made to an education fund for Levi, and these will be accepted through the funeral home. To share a condolence or memory, visit: www.frankandbright.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Everett Billingsley, 25, of Salem, Illinois, went to be with the Lord on Saturday, May 2, 2026, at St. Louis University Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri. Matt was born on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":37362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-06T21:43:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1404\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Sapp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Sapp\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Greg Sapp\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1\"},\"headline\":\"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-06T21:43:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":402,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Obituaries\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/\",\"name\":\"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-06T21:43:26+00:00\",\"description\":\"Effingham's News and Sports Leader\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":1404},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/obits\\\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/premier-logo-v1.png\",\"width\":272,\"height\":69,\"caption\":\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1\",\"name\":\"Greg Sapp\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/greg_sapp\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","og_description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/","og_site_name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","article_published_time":"2026-05-06T21:43:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":1404,"url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Greg Sapp","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Greg Sapp","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/"},"author":{"name":"Greg Sapp","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1"},"headline":"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem","datePublished":"2026-05-06T21:43:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/"},"wordCount":402,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg","articleSection":["Obituaries"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/","name":"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg","datePublished":"2026-05-06T21:43:26+00:00","description":"Effingham's News and Sports Leader","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Matthew-Billingsley-obituary-photo.jpg","width":1000,"height":1404},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/37361-matthew-everett-billingsley-25-of-salem\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Matthew Everett Billingsley (25) of Salem"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/premier-logo-v1.png","width":272,"height":69,"caption":"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ea4a7a4f3418a551e6319888ef00a8f1","name":"Greg Sapp","url":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/author\/greg_sapp\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Greg Sapp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37363,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37361\/revisions\/37363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}