Wednesday, January 09, 2013

The loss of a good friend!


Jimmy Silverlake passed away yesterday afternoon at 6:30.

7 comments:

Harry Kingston said...

Very Sorry to hear of his passing and he was a great friend and we go back to the Fisher Bros Circus days.
God bless.
Harry in Texas

Unknown said...

His family and my mom's family grew up together. Jimmy was named after my grandfather Jim Conley. Years ago I visited Jimmy with Ringling. He gave me the royal treatment and introduced me as his 7th cousin twice removed. He was a great guy.
Maria Vonderheid

Anonymous said...

Very sorry to hear this sad news. The last time I saw Jimmy he was working Boo on Roberts Bros in Ludlow, VT, same great guy, always made you feel welcome whether Big Bertha or a mud show. My sincere condolences to the family. He was a great guy and will certainly be missed.
Paul

Ole Whitey said...

Mary Jane and I day-and-dated the Clark and Walters show in the early seventies somewhere in West Tennessee. That is to say we did our magic show in the school auditorium while the circus was setting up on the playground.

Of course we visited and the Silverlakes were very nice. Jimmy tried to swap a rabbit he had for ours. Unfortunately his was a New Zealand and too big to fit in the gazookus so we kept our little dutch one.

Long afterward he was here with Tommy/Tusk. They came in a day early by truck.

jerry digney said...

Sad news indeed. A good guy always. Early on, 40 years ago(?), I spent some time on C&W with Jimmy and his brothers and his dad Brownie and mom Josephine. A real old time circus family who did everything. They had Norma Jean the elephant and Jimmy worked her along with his wife. After many many years we reconnected here in L.A. when he had King Tusk on Ringling with Sue and Rudy and Lee Stevens, also on tour—so we got to hang out an enjoy many stories and laughs. Same good guy, and I was happy to see him get a high visibility gig like that, as long as it lasted. RIP buddy—you were a great circus man indeed—and your son is still in the biz carrying the Timberlake/Silverlake name, which is great.

JC Hall said...

My oh My
How Folks and time pass us by,
I guess first time I got to troup with the Silverlake tribe was around 1963 or so with Little Bob Stevens show, Sell's Bros Circus. I recall Jim's father and grand father also brothers Franklin and Melvin who were all on the show. I was quite a youngen then and always thought well of Jim and his family.Jim was an old show guy that knew what a bale ring, a rolling half hitch and having to do chinese on the bibles meant. The last time I saw Jim he was driving an elephant truck from Montreal returning to Richmond Ill.Fond memories in all.R.I.P. Old friend.

Chic Silber said...


I thought it was called a gazinta