James "Jimmy" VanZant

Sep 2, 1951 -

Sep 23, 2026

James "Jimmy" VanZant was born on Sept. 2, 1951, to James and Dorothy McDaniel VanZant in Richmond, Ind. At 3 years old Jimmy, his parents and his sister Sue moved to Eagle River, Alaska, where he spent his boyhood hunting, fishing, reading and playing music. After his father's unexpected passing in 1962, Jimmy spent most of his youth moving around the country with his mother and stepfather, William "Bill" Parks, going from Indiana to Kentucky to Arkansas, and back up to Alaska, where the family homesteaded in the Hatcher Pass area. Always independent and free-spirited, as a teenager Jimmy played music in bands, rode motorcycles and hitchhiked across the country, stopping on the west coast during the Summer of Love in 1969. However, he quickly settled down when he met the love of his life, Kathi Carman, in 1970. The two married in 1972, and built a rough-and-tumble cabin in the Hatcher Pass area, with Jimmy doing the logging and milling for the beams himself. As Kathi would later say, "We didn't even have a level or a square, but we got it built." Slowly over time, their cabin developed into a proper home, and they welcomed their daughter Ivory into the family in 1986.

Though he had a bit of a checkered past, Jimmy eventually started working through the State of Alaska, first at the Pioneer Home in Palmer, and later at the Plant Material Center. A lifelong reader and knowledge seeker, he enjoyed his work cultivating native plant species and traveling around the wilderness of Alaska. However, Jimmy's real passion was not his work but his hobbies. He was a true Renaissance man, whether he was tinkering and working on his many motorcycles and vintage cars, studying ancient Roman history, or carving wood to make his own guitars, ukuleles and drums. He was an avid amateur botanist, developing his own strains of plants, and also enjoyed outdoor sports of all kinds, spending much of the winters in Hatcher Pass skiing, snowboarding and snowmachining, then gold panning, fishing and hiking in the summers.

Jimmy's motto throughout his life was "love many, respect all, harm none." An avowed pacifist later in life, he would even catch and release spiders and other insects instead of harming them. With a relaxed and calm demeanor, he made friends easily, especially if they had shared interests. He was generous with his time to his friends and family, and loved nothing more than spending time with others, playing music, working on a project or just sitting around a bonfire chatting and telling jokes. Jimmy passed away peacefully on Sept. 23, 2026, in the home that he and Kathi built, surrounded by "his girls" - his wife, Kathi; daughter, Ivory; and dog, Blossom. In addition to his immediate family, he is survived by his niece, Kimberly Levesque; stepnephew, Marc Levesque; nephews, Richard and David Byers and Everett Levesque. A memorial service will be held for Jimmy on Oct. 25, 2026, from 1-5 p.m., at the Fishhook Bar and Grill. Friends and family are encouraged to bring their favorite cars and guitars in his honor.