Archives West Finding Aid

Kirby G. Hoon, Sr. was born on June 4, 1884 in Marietta, OH to Orris E. and Clara Hoon. He had one brother Donald E. Hoon and one sister Elizabeth “Bessie” Hoon McElroy. The family moved to Helena, MT in 1887 where the Hoon children attended school. From 1901-1910, he played professional baseball. Kirby Hoon married Henrietta “Hattie” Divel Caldwell on January 21, 1910 in Butte. They had two children, Kirby G. Hoon, Jr., and Jackson F. Hoon. Between 1910 and 1920 Hoon worked as a sales manager in Montana for Royal Milling Company and for Swift and Company. He was also appointed postmaster of Helena, MT in 1922, a position he held until 1933. The family moved to Missoula, MT in 1936 where Hoon worked for the Highlander Brewing Company and then the John R. Daily Meat Company, retiring from the latter in 1959. Along with being a professional baseball player, Hoon was also a nationally ranked handball player and Montana state singles champion several times. He was also one half of the state champion doubles team with Judge Lester Loble of Helena. Kirby G. Hoon, Sr. died on February 27, 1981 at the Community Hospital in Missoula, MT. He is buried at the Missoula Cemetery. Henrietta Hoon died on March 26, 1986 and is buried alongside Kirby.

Kirby Grant (Kirby G. Hoon, Jr.) was born on November 24, 1911 in Butte, MT to Kirby and Henrietta Hoon. He attended high school in Helena, MT. A noted violinist, he received a scholarship to the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago where he studied music and became a professional singer and bandleader. He married Barbara Van Brunt on October 28, 1939 and the couple divorced in 1947. Kirby later married Carolyn J. Gillis with whom he had three children. He took the stage name Kirby Grant and starred in a number of low-budget B westerns before landing the lead role of Schulyer/Skyler (Sky King) in the television show Sky King in 1951. The show ended in 1962 and three years later Grant purchased and traveled with the Carson and Barnes Circus retiring in 1970 and moved to Florida where he and Carolyn founded the nonprofit Sky King Youth Ranches of America that provided homes for unwanted children. Grant died tragically on October 30, 1985 in an automobile accident near Titusville, FL while on his way to watch the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger at Cape Canaveral. Carolyn and his three children buried him in the Missoula Cemetery.

Jackson “Jack” Frederick Hoon was born on July 24, 1917 in Helena, MT to Kirby and Henrietta Hoon. Jack attended the University of Montana where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. While at the university he worked as the cartoonist for the Montana Kaimin as well as playing varsity football. Hoon joined the United States Army and served until 1946 achieving the rank of major. He married Virginia Lucille Bell, daughter of Walter Clair and Ethel (Tribble) Bell at San Diego, CA in 1945. They had three children Kirby L. Hoon, Janice Virginia Hoon and Nancy Claire Hoon Logozzo. In 1947, they moved to Missoula where Jack went to work for the Western Montana Building and Loan as a general clerk and retired as the managing officer in 1979. He served on a number of boards during his professional career as well as serving as president of the Missoula Civic Symphony and director of the Missoula and Montana Chamber of Commerce. His wife Virginia died in 1990. Jackson “Jack” F. Hoon died on August 28, 1993 in Missoula, MT. His family buried him next to Virginia in the Missoula Cemetery.