Manferd Houghton

The piano at Garden Court West may not sound the same. It will not hear the likes again of the ragtime and honky tonk music of the country boy who tickled the ivories so joyously.

Manferd Houghton, Jr., 86, an area native who never had a lesson and who was a regular entertainer for the folks at the Nutrition Centers around the county and in various nursing homes, has died.

The man who called himself a “suspender-wearing sailor who had been around the world,” died in Miller’s Merry Manor, 600 Oakhill Ave., Plymouth, of a cancer-related illness at 7:40 a.m. on Sunday, December 28, 2003.

Born in Vale, South Dakota, on September 11, 1917, Manferd was the son of Orlando Manferd and Jessie Rogers Houghton. Living in Hibbard, Ind., since he was three, he graduated from Culver High School in 1935.

In high school he played the slide trombone and was in the school band and orchestra. He also sang in the glee club.

After graduation, he took his “please don’t rain” cardboard suitcase, his trombone and hitchhiked to Tazewell, Va.

He first was part of a traveling dramatic show, later playing in the band of the Harry Haag Circus. He next went with the Russell Brothers Circus, then the Parker and Watts Circus, where his favorite thing was being part of a street parade before the performance.

In 1939, Manferd joined the 18th Field Artillery Army Band and served until 1941 when a back injury forced a medical discharge. In 1947, he enlisted in the Merchant Marines as an officer and remained on active duty until 1960.

In the private sector, Manferd was a stationary engineer with the Harris County Hospital District in Houston, Texas, until his retirement in 1983.

Manferd first came back to Plymouth in the late 1950s. He tuned pianos and had a little band with Floyd Thomas, Thomas’ wife and son, that he called the Nighthawks. Later, he formed a group, the Bandoleers, featuring Ethel Jeffirs on the accordion that played all over northern Indiana.

Wandering got the best of him and he left to serve as an engineering officer on a ship working on the Great Lakes. He returned to Plymouth again for good in January of 1990.

At the time, he said, “my roots are here. It was time to come home.”

Manferd shared his vast entertaining skills with anyone who wanted to listen, sometimes 12 to 13 performances a month. After suffering a mini-stroke, he had to cut back his schedule, but still continued to volunteer his time in Plymouth, Culver and LaPaz.

He was a member of the Plymouth Moose Lodge, 741, the Fraternal Order of the Eagles and the American Legion Post 363 in Lakeville.

Manferd is survive by five nieces and four nephews. His nieces are Carol Irish, Linda Hirst, Virginia Vandermoore, Kathleen Brummel and Beverly Balardo. The nephews are Alan Houghton, Glen, Kenneth and Thomas Hirst.

Manferd was preceded in death by his parents; three brothers, Roger, Randall and Keith Houghton and one sister, Irene Hirst.

A memorial service will be held at 1p.m. Friday January 2, 2003, in the Argos Wesleyan Church, 401 N. Michigan St. Argos. The Revs. Robert Klatt and Brian Trump will officiate.

Preferred are memorial gifts to the Garden Court West.