Jimmie Howard Hammond

Jimmie H. Hammond, age 91, of Elizabethtown, KY, died on October 26, 2023. He was born on September 10, 1932, in Eckerty, Indiana, to the late Plevy Asa Ree Hammond and Bertha Blanche (Worman) Hammond. He was preceded in death by brothers Charles, Junior "J.C.", Roy Lee and Victor. Yes, his mom gave birth five times, sure that the "next one" would be a girl. After five boys, she accepted defeat.

Jim, as his friends called him, served in the United States Air Force as an MP and was a veteran of the Korean War. He served in Japan, Alaska and Greenland, among many other places. When he returned home to Indiana after an honorable discharge, he went to vocational school for HVAC repair. However, he wasn't limited to repairing heating and air conditioning units. Jim never met a piece of mechanical equipment that he couldn't fix.

Jim moved to Louisville, KY in the early 1960s with his first wife, Rosetta, where they raised their two children. Rosetta always said that she married him in 1957 because she was impressed with his car, a 1956 two-tone yellow and black Mercury Montclair convertible. (People have married for worse reasons.) Jim never gave up on his love of cool automobiles, once even purchasing a race car that he owned until he wrecked it on the track. In the 1970s and 1980s, he came home every couple of years to take his family to the car dealer after he'd spotted a new vehicle to buy. These ranged from a 1984 dark blue Camaro to a brand new 1985 Ford Econoline van that was tricked out with an electric bed, captain's chairs, a built-in cooler and TV. Of course, road trip vacations were an essential component of family life.

Jim was a fan of slightly off-color jokes and Southern turns of phrase, including "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" and "I like to go deer hunting; the two-legged kind."

He loved to watch TV and his favorite thing was to turn on the TV soon after getting home from work and relaxing in his recliner. Naps ensued. They were a core part of his TV-viewing experience. But if asked if he was sleeping, he always denied it.

After 32 years, Jim and Rosetta divorced. Jim met his second wife, Doris, at square dancing. They married in 1993 and moved from Louisville to Elizabethtown in 2001, where he lived until moving to a nursing facility in La Grange the month before his death. Doris and Jim loved to go out to eat, with Cracker Barrel and Texas Roadhouse at the top of their list. He always planned to take Doris camping at Iron Creek Lake in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he vacationed with his brother Roy Lee and their families in the 1970s. He fondly recalled how he could "catch trout nonstop even on bare hooks." Sadly, they never made the trip.

Jim leaves behind his children, Teena Maddox (Troy) and Jim Hammond (Sheri); grandchildren, Fiona, Sierra and Brennan Hammond and Nathaniel, Nicolas and Emma Maddox. He also leaves behind his second wife, Doris, and her son, Troy Colon (Tammy); and their children, Makenzie and Noah Fisher; and a host of relatives and friends.

The family will honor Jim at a private memorial service at a later date. A few off-color jokes are sure to be told in his honor.

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