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Camas native Jimmie Rodgers, of ‘Honeycomb’ fame, dies at 87

The '51 Camas High grad performed in downtown Camas in 2011 and returned again to his hometown in 2013 after the city renamed a street in his honor

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Singer, actor and television personality Jimmie Rodgers was back in his hometown of Camas on Friday, Sept. 13, 2013, to take part in the dedication of a street being named in his honor. Jimmie Rodgers Avenue is the new honorary street name for Northwest 10th Avenue in the Forest Home neighborhood, where Rodgers lived from from 1939 to 1957. (Post-Record file photo)

Jimmie Rodgers, the Camas “hometown boy” known for his 1950s and ’60s top-10 recording hits, including “Honeycomb,” “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” and “Oh-Oh, I’m Falling in Love Again,” has died at the age of 87. 

Rodgers, who grew up in Camas, and had a local street named after him in 2013, died Jan. 18, 2021. 

His daughter, Michele Rodgers, announced the news on her Facebook page this week, saying her father was her “first great love, best friend and now greatest loss.” 

A pop singer, actor and author, Rodgers graduated from Camas High School in 1951, attended Clark College and served in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Both he and his parents worked at the Camas paper mill. His mother, Mary, was a local music teacher. 

Rodgers told the Post-Record in 2013 that he was a bit of a class clown during high school. 

“I wasn’t a straight-A student,” he said in 2013. “I was a goofball. I had a lot of fun.” 

That happy attitude carried him through his life, winning fans — first as a recording artist who produced nearly a dozen top-40 hits and, later, as an actor, performing lead roles in the 1960s movies “The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come” and “Back Door to Hell.”

In 2013, Rodgers visited Camas for the dedication of “Jimmie Rodgers Avenue,” the honorary street name given to Northwest 10th Avenue in the Forest Home neighborhood, where Rodgers lived from 1939 to 1957, and to sign copies of his autobiography, “Dancing on the Moon: The Jimmie Rodgers Story,” in downtown Camas. 

Rodgers lived in Palm Springs, California, at the time of his death. He is survived by his wife, Mary Rodgers; five children and several grandchildren. 

Calls to Rodgers’ daughter, Michele, for comment were not immediately returned.

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