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GREENSBORO -- Bill Rogers tried just about every job at one time or another. He was a milkman. He sold insurance. He sold cars. He operated a service station.

"He never had a job in his life that he liked," says a laughing Dorothy Rogers of her late husband.

But in 1969, Bill Rogers settled into the job he was meant to do: restaurant owner. The restaurant, Bill's Pizza Pub, has been his family's livelihood for more than four decades.

The High Point Road pizza parlor, which recently marked its 40th anniversary, has been a destination for three generations of families.

"It's good pizza," says patron Daniel Eller, who waits to pay the tab after a Friday night visit with his family.

His dad took him to Bill's, and now he takes his two young boys.

"They love it," Eller says.

Bill Workman, 49, remembers his family driving to Greensboro from Trinity twice a week just to eat at Bill's.

B.J. Perkins, 32, and his mother, Rose Perkins, would drive over from Mebane to get a Bill's pizza. Perkins now drives down from Reidsville to get his fix.

"It was unique things, like the way it was cut -- in little squares. It's easier to eat when you are driving down the road," says Tommy Nix, who was getting a small pie to go.

Those bite-size squares of Bacon Cheeseburger, Taco, Hawaiian and Bill's Feast pizzas have been a signature touch since Rogers opened the restaurant as a franchise of Sir Pizza in 1969.

Rogers tried a number of occupations before his restless spirit led him to sell the family home in Indiana, a place Dorothy Rogers still lovingly refers to as "that cottage," and move his family into a cinder-block rental in east High Point to open a pizza franchise in Greensboro.

The weight of the move was not lost on his three teenage daughters -- Cara, Donna and Judy . They had heard stories about the South and fretted on the drive to North Carolina when all they could find on the AM radio dial was country music.

"Every dime we owned was in the business," says Dorothy Rogers, 79.

Dorothy Rogers doesn't remember the exact opening date, but she knows it was just after her birthday on Aug. 22. She remembers things being slow the first week of business. But that quickly changed.

"We were open on Labor Day when all the kids started coming back from the beach," Rogers says.

High Point Road was a destination for teenagers then. Cruising the wide retail boulevard between drive-in burger restaurants such as Petty's and Honey's with its "Skytower" DJ booth in the parking lot was a Friday and Saturday night ritual. So, a new pizza place didn't go unnoticed when it opened in the old Tropicana Supper Club near Florida Street.

"It was always crowded," remembers Tommy Nix, 59, a 1968 graduate of nearby Smith High School. Smith students filled the parking lot after football games.

"It was like a train car," Nix recalls of the original restaurant's bar, which was built inside an old dining car. "The atmosphere was dark. It was good for dating."

Sir Pizza was a stop on date night for Mike and Susie Evans.

"It was a place where everybody came," Susie Evans says. "Bill would stick his head in where the pinball machines were to make sure everybody was behaving themselves."

Bill Rogers left the kitchen in the care of his wife, Dorothy, while he mingled with patrons, a beloved pastime.

Dorothy Rogers says they were about three years into the venture and struggling when Bill learned that the franchise supplier was overcharging them. Furious, he bought out the franchise and renamed the restaurant Bill's Pizza because everyone already referred to it as "Bill and Dorothy's place."

But the transition left Bill Rogers without a dough recipe.

"Sir Pizza had a premix dough, so my dad never knew what was in it," says Cara Rogers, 56, who is now the night manager of Bill's Pizza. "All the other pizza places had a secret ingredient in their dough."

She says her father contacted the Pillsbury Company and persuaded them to send a representative to Greensboro to help him develop a dough. After her family tasted more pizzas then she cares to remember, Cara Rogers says her father came up with his own secret recipe.

"My dad promised Pillsbury he would always use their flour, and he stuck by that. To this day, we still have Pillsbury in the stockroom."

Bill Rogers expanded the Bill's Pizza Pub family by opening locations on Battleground Avenue and Randleman Road in the mid-1970s. Family members still own and operate the Randleman Road location and a new location in Oak Ridge. The Battleground Avenue location has since closed.

In the early 1980s, the landlord doubled the rent on the 2702 High Point Road location, which is now a Mexican restaurant. Again, Bill Rogers took matters into his own hands. He purchased some property just up the street and in 1984 opened a new location at 2607 High Point Road, where the restaurant has been ever since.

For decades, a consistently familiar face is Lillie Johnson, 56. Patrons just call her "Pat."

Johnson has worked for the Rogerses for 36 years. She began by making pizzas in the kitchen and is now the day manager. Johnson's daughter practically grew up at Bill's, walking there from school every day and doing her homework while she waited for her mother's shift to end.

Like many customers, Bill Workman still drops by for a pizza just to see Johnson.

"Pat is that friendly and familiar face that is a part of Bill's," Workman says, remembering how on slow nights Johnson would sit with his family to talk. "It wouldn't be the same without her there."

Liz Kellum, 41, remembers how, as a schoolgirl in the 1970s, she would save her lunch money just to get a personal pepperoni pizza on her way home. She says Johnson was always there looking out for her. Now, Kellum takes her own daughters to Bill's to eat pizza and say hello to Johnson.

Bill's daughter, Cara Rogers, has also remained a consistent presence at the restaurant since she began waiting tables at age 15. Even though she is now the night manager, she still enjoys interacting with customers just like her father did.

"I loved being a waitress," she says. "When my father asked me to be a manager, I didn't want to be a manager."

She has seen a lot of people come through the door through the years, including carnies from the annual agricultural fair ("They were always good tippers") and hockey players ("They would want to fight and drink beer"). She has served NASCAR legend Richard Petty and singer Billy "Crash" Craddock. She remembers once delivering a take-out order of spaghetti dinners to the Greensboro Coliseum for singer David Bowie and his crew.

"His hair was all orange," she recalls.

And once, in the 1980s, she held the spotlight while making a pizza on a cooking segment for WFMY (Channel 2).

In addition to the years she has worked with Johnson, Cara Rogers has fond memories of other staff, such as Ki Su Kim, a Korean immigrant who cooked in the kitchen for many years and was trained in martial arts. He once vaulted over the service counter and chased a belligerent customer out of the restaurant.

"Everyone was amazed at how fast he cut the pizzas with a long knife," Cara Rogers says.

And then there was Cezar Petty, who delivered a eulogy at Bill Rogers' funeral when he died in 2004 at age 79.

Bill Rogers was a generous employer. Cara Rogers recalls him giving bonuses at the end of a long night when the restaurant would fill up after a concert or sporting event at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Dorothy Rogers says the restaurant has always done fairly well. But that didn't stop Bill Rogers from trying new things to increase business -- such as delivering to UNCG, first on motorscooters, then in delivery vans. Fliers promoting a free pitcher of beverage with the purchase of a pizza proved popular until he found out that a restaurant can't give away free beer. He ceased production of a commissioned cast-iron pizza stone when he realized they weren't selling.

And Bill Rogers was ahead of the curve with premade take-and-bake pizzas. But he quickly realized that his customers wanted their pies fresh and hot.

They still get them that way, 40 years later.

Contact Carl Wilson at 373-7145 or carl.wilson@news-record.com