James L. Hamlin

James L Hamlin was born in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee 06/17/1948. His sister Sandra was 13 months old when he was born. He grew up there for 6 years then moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee where his Mom met and married Bill Gamble . Bill raised Jim and his sister as his own children. He was a real Dad to them. Durring their marriage they had 3 more childern Glen, Bill, and Paula. As a young boy he was always into a lot of mischief and enjoyed having lots of fun. He and his oldest sister played church. He was the preacher. He was good as a preacher and in adult life he still loved to talked a lot.

It was difficult to keep him in the class room. At Christmas one time the teacher sent him out to cut a christmas tree and he didn't return until after Christmas - no tree.

He was loved by all as a young man and through out his entire life.

Jim loved stock car racing. He had his own car at one point and worked on teams also as a show car driver.

Once when he had his own race cars he asked Jim Bown to drive his car in a race. He told him to watch out for a particular driver as he would try to dump him. On a restart that driver did dump Jim Bown. After the race he asked Jimmy Hamlin how he knew this would happen and he replied that he had repossessed his race car the week before.

Jimmy loved to fish. He bought his own boat and loved to take his grandchildren fishing. He caught fish but didn't like to eat them so he always came home and gave his catch away.

Jimmy became a volunteer in the Multnomah County Police Department. The Chaplain said no ther volunteer was as well liked by all of the officers as Jimmy was.

He met a young officer when he went out on his first ride-a-long. His name was Steve. They "clicked" right away and he became the son Jimmy never had. One time when they were out they were in pursuit of some speeders and Jimmy didn't want Steve to take a turn on German Town Road because of the rate of speed they were going and it was so foggy out, so he told Steve they went straight ahead. Steve said they would have been a good catch.

Jimmy'a wife died at child birth. They had a baby girl named Kim. He was raising her on his own. When Kim was 8 he met Barbara and they married. They had a wonderful life together and loved each other more each day. If only it could have been longer. He passed away on 7-2-11. He will be missed greatly and never forgotten.