Attorney Joe Pippen was a very much loved and respected member of the community and enjoyed serving the public by providing free legal advice on his radio show “Ask an Attorney” which was heard throughout the Tampa Bay area for 37 years. Radio talk show host Bill Bunkley interviews Joe’s spouse, Beverly Pippen, on their years together and the difference Joe made in people’s lives.

The Bill Bunkley hosts a radio show that brings you the latest in political and cultural news with a decidedly Christian worldview. FaithTalk 570 and 100.3 Tampa Bay 910 and 102.1 Lakeland; Monday-Friday, 4-5 p.m. on AM 930 The Answer; Fridays, 4-5 p.m. on AM 860 The Answer. Also streaming on the web, your smartphone, or iHeartRadio.
You can listen to the segment of the Bill Bunkley show with Bev Pippen below or read the transcript of the segment further below.
Beverly Pippen and Bill Bunkley Live on WTBN
Discussing Attorney Joe Pippen
Bill Bunkley:
Welcome back, Bill Bunkley here with the Bill Bunkley Show. If you’re just tuning in, it’s a very special Friday afternoon here in the 4:00 hour, because we are looking back at the life of Joe Pippen. Joe was on the air with his radio program, Ask an Attorney, since way back in 1984. And we were honored to have the program on our stations first back in 2005. And then a little bit further, 2001 and 2005 all the way until today. And I want to tell you that we were shocked, but we have been praying for his wife, Bev, the family and friends. And I know that this was a very sudden situation for everyone. And so to have a chance to share a little bit, we are honored to have Mrs. Pippen with us this afternoon, and Bev is calling in. And Bev, first of all, thank you so much for spending a few moments with us.
Bev Pippen:
Thank you. It’s my honor.
Bill Bunkley:
Well, it goes without saying from our General Manager, Barb Yoder and Joe Weaver, and I know that you had a chance to chat with them on it all this week that, our overriding thoughts and prayers are with you. And we have really been impacted by your husband’s life and, of paramount this afternoon, that’s what we want you to know. And that’s what, hopefully, that you can feel because he was a very special guy to you. You chose him, he chose you, but very special to us. And just thank you for being with us at this tender moment.
Bev Pippen:
I’m so glad that I could be here. Thank you, Bill.
Bill Bunkley:
How did it all start between you and Joe? How did you guys meet?
Bev Pippen:
Oh, my gracious. It’s a funny story, because he likes to tell this unreal version of it. But he came to my high school, he’d gone there the year before, and then a new school opened up that he went that year in his junior year. And I had come into my high school as a freshman. And so at the end of my freshman year, there was a yearbook-signing sock hop we had…
Bill Bunkley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
… back in 1964.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
And I was 15 and he was 17. And he stared at me across the gym the entire night. I was with my girlfriends and my sorority sisters or whatever. And I didn’t know who he was. And so, lo and behold, the last song comes up and it’s a slow song. Here he comes across the gym and he asked me to dance with him and I was so rude. I just said, “No, thank you.” And he turned heel and walked away…
Bill Bunkley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
… because I don’t think any girl had ever done that to him.
Bev Pippen:
But two months later, I was at the lake. He was a lifeguard. And I had heard in between that time that he was a good guy, he went to my friend’s church. He was a really good guy. He helped take care of his brother. And I saw a different part of him and I eased in on, I liked his personality.
Bev Pippen:
And about a week later, he asked me out and believe it or not, the anniversary of our first date was yesterday. It was August 5th, 1964.
Bill Bunkley:
Wow.
Bev Pippen:
Fifty-seven years ago was our first date.
Bill Bunkley:
Wow.
Bev Pippen:
And we dated that last year of his senior year and then four years of college. And then he got married. We got married December 20th, 1969. And he went into law school shortly thereafter. He worked a 40-hour day during the day…
Bill Bunkley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
… and I would pack his lunch for his supper and he would go to law school at night.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
And I worked for lawyers as a legal secretary during that time. And he also, at the same time, he was in law school, he went through OCS and became a Lieutenant in the Virginia Army National Guard.
Bill Bunkley:
All the way back to high school?
Bev Pippen:
Yeah.
Bill Bunkley:
A lot of those long-term relationships never certainly last all of these years, but that must be just a special, special place in your heart that you and he connected so closely and worked as a team all these years.
Bev Pippen:
It is incredible because when he started his law practice, I had not been a legal secretary in Florida, but I thought, well, who better to have your back? And I was working on interior design at the same time and I quit that to help him open up practice. And I started being his secretary up in a spare room upstairs in our house on a metal card table…
Bill Bunkley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
… and chair on pillows, so I could sit up high enough on a very, very, old, not a Selectric, but a old IBM typewriter, in the days that we were doing four carbon copies and doing 13, 14 page trusts. And I had two little boys downstairs running around. And it was quite something. But we have that history that we built it from the ground up. And I’m so proud of him. He was my absolute, the love of my life. And he called me his dream girl.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bill Bunkley:
I want to follow up on one thing to what you can share and if you cannot share, I understand. But how about Joe Pippen the family kid? Just before he met you, you referenced that he took care of his brother. We don’t need to go into specifics, but I want to just share a little bit, because we’re talking about the man behind the name of Ask an Attorney. He was showing some leadership skills and responsibility skills way back then, didn’t he?
Bev Pippen:
Oh my word. He was so mature, so responsible. His brother was a special needs brother and he would feel such compassion for his parents. I remember the time that he slipped and fell on slick, wet grass and broke his arm. And he didn’t want to tell his mother because she was going to the YWCA and she never got out.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
And he wasn’t going to say anything, but she finally found out that he had broken his arm. He was not going to tell her.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
He was the most giving person. His love language was acts of service. And he did that across the board without any regrets, any attitude. When he walked into the house at the end of the day, he was the same person here that he was that everyone else saw. Just the same kindness, loving, patient person. Just an incredible role model for me. Just incredible.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative). That’s awesome.
Bill Bunkley:
If you’re just joining us a very special edition on this Friday afternoon, the Bill Bunkley Show, a tribute to Joe Pippen who went home to be with the Lord. The host of Ask an Attorney, bright and early on Saturday mornings. Only the Lord knows how many people he was able to touch, whether they called in or when you’re talking about wills or trusts or probate, well, that’s a area of law, we’re all going to have to deal with it sometime. And just imagine all of the community good will that came out of his years and years. And I call that a ministry.
Bill Bunkley:
Well, let’s fast forward. We’re talking to Bev, Joe’s wife. We’re doing some reflections back on some of the private side that many never had a chance to get to know, just because of the fact that he was a radio personality to many people listening or even right now. So we got a couple of kids, he’s in law school, just so many things on the plate. So tell us about those years, because he still was a steady Eddie. He just had a weigh to balance a lot of things, carrying a lot of things on the plate. Talk about that.
Bev Pippen:
Well, he had incredible energy. It didn’t even look like frenetic energy, by any means, he just had this deep well of resources of energy with the same steady persona that he had. He could juggle. During the early years of his practice, he did a lot of public speaking, but he always had dinner with us and he’d go out for a quick hour or two for a speaking engagement and come right back home. Very involved with his kids, even as youngsters, he’d buy them those little action figures…
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
… and get in their room and play with them. And he would watch cartoons with them if he could get home early in the afternoon, but he’d go back out after dinner.
Bev Pippen:
He was definitely a family man, very balanced in that, but still loved public speaking. He loved his own form of marketing. He had such a gift from the Lord. It just fell out of his pores. He had ideas. He loved to promote. He loved to make people happy. He loved to serve people in the type of law he practiced. He didn’t want to have adversity. And so often law is, and can be, of course, but he wanted to help people.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
And it was truly, truly his desire and his passion.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
His passion was to help people.
Bill Bunkley:
We got about three or four minutes left. How about back when he decided to go on the radio, he decided to write that weekly column? Could you tell us how that came about?
Bev Pippen:
Again, starting of the birth of the marketing thing, he thought writing articles. When we were in Maryland, he liked writing articles and he got a few published in the, I think it was the Daily Record, it was the legal newspaper in Baltimore. Liked doing that and started doing, in a local newspaper, I believe it was the Seminole Beacon, and we came up with a name, Ask an Attorney. And he would do this little article. I got the fun project of editing it. And so I did that and then he’d submit it. And all of a sudden, he had a bunch of those. And so he printed that first small book, Ask an Attorney.
Bev Pippen:
And then he decided to go radio, because he had been practicing the speaking, because when he was a young child, he had a stammering problem, and nobody ever fixed it. God fixed it.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative). Amen. Hmm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
And so he worked on speaking. He did a lot of speaking and, one day, he went into 570 and he showed them the book and they said, “Well, we’ll give it a try.” I think they gave him a try and someone else hosted it. And then, all of a sudden, they had this big spot and they say, “You want this, you do it on your own.” And I was at home like a stage mother, nervous Nelly and listened to him do three hours by himself on a Sunday afternoon.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bev Pippen:
And from then on, he hit the ground running and he’s been on radio ever since.
Bill Bunkley:
Well, I tell you what, you being able to share, pulling back the curtain on your personal relationship, that just endears all of us, our audience more to your husband. And I just can’t tell you enough how all of those character traits and integrity just poured forth as he was sharing on the radio. And I just want to make sure that you know how much he was beloved here and by all the members of our community.
Bill Bunkley:
I know that you’re going to have Memorial Service next Wednesday at the First Baptist of Indian Rocks. But…
Bev Pippen:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bill Bunkley:
… it has been very, very special for you to share some of these intimate stories. And really, I know that Joe would be so pleased with your testimony. And I know that one day you’re looking forward to that opportunity for the reunion…
Bev Pippen:
Yes, indeed.
Bill Bunkley:
… because you will see him again.
Bev Pippen:
That is our hope. That is our joy, that gets us through the day.
Bill Bunkley:
Mm (affirmative).
Bill Bunkley:
Bev, my sister in Christ, thank you so much for being with us. And we’re praying for you…
Bev Pippen:
Thank you.
Bill Bunkley:
… praying for the family and God, I know he has already, but he will surround you with his presence and know that the saying of, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” was bestowed upon Joe when he was absent with the body present with the Lord and always hold on to that.
Bev Pippen:
I totally do. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
Bill Bunkley:
Thanks for being with us.
Bev Pippen:
My pleasure. Thank you.
Bill Bunkley:
God bless.
Bev Pippen:
Thanks.
Bill Bunkley:
Well coming up, we’re going to have a chance to listen to a couple interactions with Joe and Dr. Ken Whitten about George Washington, Andrew Johnson, and a side of him when he said goodbye to our former General Manager, [Chris Gould 00:13:54]. That’s coming up in a moment. Don’t go away.