Obituary of James Arthur Bennett

James A. Bennett, 82 passed away in his home surrounded by family on Sunday, February 9, 2014. He was born in Wolf Point Montana to Carl & Velma Jelly. That marriage ended in divorce and Velma later married Matt Bennett. Jim later married Sue Johnson. Unable to have children of his own due to a childhood illness they adopted two children. That marriage ended in divorce. Jim met his current wife Karin in 1970 and they married in 1979. He raised her two small children as his own. As a young boy Jim would pick brush with his stepdad Matt and sell to Northwest Evergreens & Calison Evergreens. He decided to start his own evergreen business and started it out of his parent’s garage. Hillcrest Evergreen grew and grew and eventually he was selling evergreens all over the world. He and Karin retired in 1989 moving to California and later Florida. They recently moved back to Shelton to be closer to family due to his health. Jim had a love of racing pigeons. As a young boy he even hid one under his parent’s front porch thinking he would get in trouble for having it. He belonged to the Olympia Pigeon Racing Club, Belfair Pigeon Racing Club, Tacoma Pigeon Racing Club, Fernando Valley Pigeon Racing Club & the G.H.C club in Florida. He was successful and won many races as well as bred and sold birds. Jim is survived by his wife Karin (Shelton), son Ed Bennett (Oregon), daughter Sandra Bennett (Oregon), daughter Debbie (Tony) Houston (Lacey), daughter Tracie (Mark) Core (Shelton), 9 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, February 22, 2014 @ 1:00 p.m. at the First Baptist Church in Shelton.