James Bernard Binkerd
Longtime Billings resident James Bernard Binkerd, 98, died March 31, 2009. Cremation has taken place under the direction of Michelotti-Sawyers Mortuary and Crematory. A private family memorial service will be held at a later date.
Jim was born Nov. 21, 1910, the son of Edna Baughman and George Delbert Binkerd, on his parents’ eastern Montana homestead known as Castle Rock. Jim and his older sister Alice grew up around music, as their father played cornet and their mother played guitar and mandolin for country dances. “Del” Binkerd died when Jim was 10, and the family moved to Forsyth where Edna worked in the U.S. Post Office.
Jim got his first clarinet when he was 11 and music, especially jazz and swing, became the focus of his life. By the time he was 14 he was playing for dances in Forsyth and Miles City; at age 16 he dropped out of his senior year at Billings Senior High School to join a traveling orchestra. For the next 14 years he played clarinet and alto saxophone with studio bands in Hollywood and dance bands throughout the United States and Canada. In the 1930s, he performed with the Butte Copper Kings Orchestra at the recreational center built by the Anaconda Company, the Columbia Gardens. While in Butte he earned his pilot’s license, flying in an open cockpit biplane.
When he was 30 he enlisted in the U. S. Army and served stateside and in the Philippines during WWII. He was trained as a tank gunner, but frequently performed with or led army bands. In Dec. 1944 he married Georgia native Myrtis Madelyn Carter. After his honorable discharge from the military, they made their home in Billings, where he attended Billings Business College. He sold insurance and became a licensed realtor with Phipps & Co. Their only child, Brenda Carol, was born in 1951. Myrtis succumbed to cancer in 1955. Some time later, Jim took a job an as appraiser, and then negotiator, with the Right-of-Way division of the Montana Highway Department. He made many close friends among his coworkers.
In the mid-1960s, Jim returned to music as an avocation, performing with many fine jazz musicians in the Billings area. He was a regular at the American Legion Club and the B.P.O.E. for years, as well as performing at area country club dances and for weddings, private parties, and funerals until he was in his late 80s.
In 1973 he began a 25-year courtship with Billings singer and vocal teacher Elizabeth Rowan. The two married on St. Patrick’s Day, 1998, at the home of Jim’s former son-in-law, Daniel Hampson, who played piano for the private ceremony. Jim’s daughter played flute, granddaughter Stacey was the bridal attendant and vocalist, and grandsons Nathan and Brendan were best man and ring bearer, respectively.
He was a lifelong member of the American Federation of Musicians and had represented Montana at its conventions in Hawaii and Toronto. He was a member of First Congregational Church; the B.P.O.E.; American Legion; V.F.W.; Master Masons; Al Bedoo Shrine, and a former member of its musical group, The Jesters.
He was preceded in death by his wife Myrtis, sister Alice B. Reid, and wife Elizabeth Rowan. He is survived by his daughter Brenda and her partner Patricia McGowan of Salinas, CA; former son-in-law Daniel Hampson of Missoula; granddaughter Stacey Hampson Martell and husband Brent of Boise, ID; grandson Nathan Hampson, wife Christina and children James Owen and Zeta Olivia of Missoula; grandson Brendan Hampson of Missoula; and special friends and caregivers Julie St. John and Earl Herman of Billings.
Memorials may be made to any Shriners Hospital for Children.
Remembrances
Please leave your name and remembrance in this public guest book. Your comments will be shared on this page and forwarded to the family.
He played the clarinet as he lived...with all his heart. Thank -you Jim; you taught me the secret of life.
Christie Arnold
Brenda and family - you are in our thoughts and memories. Remember your dad very well, and have only the best of feelings for all.
Gary and Pam Anderson
Sorry about you Dad, Brenda. He Was Admired By many. It's been a long time since you lived with Gram in Red Lodge (and were one of my Rainbow Girls.)
Mrs. Oliver (Gen) Luoma