He had four or five watches on each arm, and his pockets were weighted down with pounds of coins.
But Jim Hughey’s opening line was usually, “You got any food? I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten since last week. I have to eat out of the Dumpster.”
Services for Hughey, who died Oct. 2 at age 76, will be at 11 a.m. today at Pipkin Mortuary, 2531 Ogden St.
Known for years by everyone at The Denver Post as the “hot metal man,” Hughey always recited the hard-luck lines about money or illnesses, followed by a roar of laughter.
Hughey, who was black, knew no skin color, said Jerry Vincent, a former printer at The Post, who is white.
If the two were on the elevator at the same time, Hughey would put his arm around Vincent, who was younger and taller, and say, “This is my dad.” Vincent would shoot back: “And he’s up for adoption.”
Hughey’s job, before the paper was computerized, was to load the bucket, called a “hell box,” with the metal type from the newspaper pages and wheel it to the melting room, where it was heated over a tub 8 feet in diameter, Vincent said. When it got to a soupy consistency, Hughey poured it into molds in the shape of the 30-pound ingots (called pigs) and the ingots were then put back on the Linotype.
He was known to set off minor fires when he heated cans of chicken noodle soup for lunch, said Terrie Gordon, who works in advertising at The Post.
The work was backbreaking. The buckets were heavy, and so were the ingots. But Hughey was tough and sturdy. He worked at The Post for 49 years, ending his career doing odd jobs.
Hughey’s outside life was the dog track, and friends believe he did well there and at the pool table.
Son Charles Hughey of Denver said his dad would take his three sons and neighborhood kids out for ice cream, loading them into his orange and white pickup. But when evening approached, he headed to the track.
Hughey’s constant joking covered over a tough childhood, which he rarely mentioned, even to his family.
James Hughey Sr. was born Nov. 3, 1929, in Mississippi.
His sons Charles and Larry Hughey, also of Denver, said their dad hitchhiked or rode the rails to Denver from Mississippi when he was a young boy.
He had no money and no place to live. But he got a job in a bakery and later cleaned bars. He never talked of the family he left or why, the sons said.
The early poverty may have led to the habit of carrying coins and rolls of money in his jumpsuit and hiding money in his house and truck, family and friends said.
He married Gertha Nelson, and they had three sons before divorcing.
In addition to his sons, he is survived by another son, James Hughey Jr. of Kansas City, Mo., eight grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-954-1223.
