Verne Byers - Family

Family

At the time of Byers' death, he had been married to Jeanne Byers for 58 years. Jeanne was once married to one of Verne's fellow band-mates, Jimmy Bemis, a trumpet player and college student at the University of Denver.

Before playing with Verne Byers, sometime around 1941, Bemis was a featured trumpeter — known as "the mite-sized trumpet player" — with Joe Buzze and His Orchestra, a Texas territory band. Bemis died in 1947 at the age of 27 on the band bus from a sudden illness while being rushed back to Denver a traveling gig in Kansas.

Three years after the Jimmy's death, Jeanne and Verne were urged by mutual friends to date. They married in the Summer of 1950, two weeks after their first date. They honeymooned at one of Verne's gigs in at Grand Lake, Colorado.

Byers died in Las Cruces, New Mexico, December 19, 2008, at the age of 90.

  • Father: Felix Bernard Beyer (b. Sept. 28, 1888, Colorado; d. Oct. 4, 1977, Lakewood, Colorado), of Denver (Felix was a pianist, piano teacher, and, in 1917, an employee at the Knight-Campbell Music Company in Denver)
  • Mother: Nellie E. Beyer (born May 22, 1891, Kansas; d. May 1978, Lakewood, Colorado)
  • Brother: Edward F. Beyer (b. Sept 20, 1915, Colorado; d. Apr 15, 1995, Littleton, CO)
  • Sister: Donna G. Braley (b. approx 1924, Colorado) of Morrison, CO
Verne was survived by his wife of 58 years:
  • Jeanne Elizabeth Byers, formerly Mrs. Jimmy Bemis, née Carr Columbus, NM
Two daughters (born to the marriage of Jeanne and Jimmy Bemis, adopted by Verne Byers)
  • July McClure, née Bemis, of Columbus, New Mexico (b. Washington, D.C.)
  • Vicki Jeanne Anderson, née Bemis, of Denver (formerly married to Rudolph M. Brand on Jan. 14, 1966, Jefferson County, CO)
Two sons (born to the marriage of Verne and Jeanne Byers)
  • Steven Lee Byers of Denver
  • Bradley J. Byers, a drummer, of Las Vegas

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