For 30 years, Unity choir member Jim Ivins worked for the Bell Telephone System, once called “Ma Bell.” Later a Verizon technician, then a realtor, he retired in 2015 and moved to Florida. Born in Camden, NJ, he was raised in farm country, Laurel Springs and Chews Landing. Drafted during the Vietnam era, Jim opted to join the Navy for four memorable and transformative years.
For more than half of his military duty, Jim was in Morocco, the remainder in Newfoundland where he met and married a fisherman’s daughter, Sylvia White. For 15 months in 1967-69, he served on a clandestine base where communications with ships in the Mediterranean required top secret clearance and a guard of 60 sailors, 70 Marines and 26 German Shepherds. Jim volunteered to go to Vietnam on a river boat, but, because he had married a Canadian, was sent back to Morocco where life was good, and the couple had their own villa and a Triumph Spitfire.
A self-taught guitarist, singer and songwriter, Jim, born to musical parents, benefited from vocal lessons since age 14. His first band was called the Mud Pies, and in the late 60s, he played in a Morocco band called Excaliber. Stateside, he and Sylvia toured several years with the renowned Philadelphia Balakaika orchestra in lively concerts of Russian, Ukrainian and Slavic folk music.
“More or less a troubadour,” Jim has played for many wedding services and had small parts in Indy films and once on “House of Cards. When he came to Florida, his sister Nancy Simmons, a long-time resident here and UCC choir member, said to him, “you will come with me to Unity church.” Six months later she suggested that he join the choir. “So, here I am, loving this life with Unity,” he says, “the services, Leddy, socializing, getting to know folks.” Baptized Methodist but attending church rarely, he finds at UCC “not the usual boring stuff,” but a wide array of activities and talent exemplified by “Sue and Tim who are wonderful in writing tremendous songs.”
Jim and Sylvia are the parents of two daughters, Zaughn in Clearwater, and Zarah in Philadelphia. They have five grandchildren, one a former Y.O.U. member at UCC, now living and working in India. Jim also had the good fortune of meeting, after 25 years, a daughter from a past relationship adopted at birth. Lee Ann lives in Williamstown NJ and has a 19-year-old son.
When he is not playing guitar, singing or writing music, Jim loves karaoke, enjoys feeding birds, cooking, and spending time with his cat. On WTAN 106.1 FM and 1340 AM from 5-6 p.m. on Wednesdays, he is Papa Jim in “Entertain Me,” a radio and podcast talk show with Lady Z (daughter Zaughn). The show features special guest appearances, including area musicians, and where to go and what to do in the Tampa Bay area. Tim Burnaman and Frank Bowman were participants in May broadcasts. On another show, Nancy Simmons, president of AFIRE since 1995, explained the work of the non profit advocacy organization serving persons with developmental disabilities. Jim is an AFIRE Board member. Their common interest is a sister with deficient memory that the family cared for tenderly and brought to Unity services until she passed peacefully in 2017.