James Cunningham

James or Jimmy as he was known to his family, was born 4th of 12 children in Scotland to an Irish family who returned home to Donegal, Ireland when he was a young boy. Jimmy had the traveling bug from a young age. From Ireland he moved to Scotland before traveling on to Canada in the early 50's. From there he joined some of his siblings who were based around the Seattle area. Although they were to settle there it wasn't for Jimmy. His adventurous spirit brought him to Chicago, Florida, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles among other places where he mainly worked as a bar man and food handler. He finally settled in Las Vegas where he spent years working in the bar in the Hilton Hotel (although he never drank). From his time in Vegas he grew to love the heat and that was a big factor in him deciding to retire in Yuma.

He was young at heart and always open to new things - having learned to touch type when he was young, when the computer revolution came around it was no big deal for him to get a laptop and stay in contact with members of the family around the world via email.

Another example of his curious, adventurous spirit was a fascination with video taping when video cameras first came out. Jimmy would make his own movies chronicling his travels, creating and editing videotapes of the places he visited and family and friends. Whoever Jimmy was with became a part of the filming process, either carrying camera cases and tripods or the two small TVs he used to edit tapes.

He loved to travel and made visits to Australia, Europe and of course to his home in Ireland, all of which he carefully recorded on his trusty camcorder.

He also had a huge interested in a variety of sports – golf being one of his favorites. Up until recent years he enjoyed getting out to play a few rounds when he could and was an avid spectator of the majors and thoroughly enjoyed the recent US masters.

He was fiercely house proud and won a Clean and Beautiful Yuma award (Ruth, I'm not 100% sure if that is what it was called - there's a plaque on the living room wall) for his property on South Ave A.

He is survived by his sisters Mary, Bridget, Josephine, Margaret & Celine and brothers Anthony & Charles and 37 nieces and nephews.