Wrestler, inventor retiring from day job after 55 years
Jimmy Kimble is on the phone. Sitting behind his desk inside the office of container shop manager at Republic Services in Memphis, as he has for the past 55 years, Kimble works to resolve a slight hiccup with a piece of equipment. The son of a Mississippi farmer, who came to the Bluff City more than five-and-a-half decades ago to visit a family member and never left, has spent a lifetime epitomizing hard work and dedication.
So much so that Monday will be only the second time in his exemplary career Kimble has not clocked in at his day job – excluding vacations, of course. Tuesday will be the third. Wednesday will mark the fourth, and so on.
“I’ve been doing this since 1965, along with a few other things I do,” said Kimble, leaning back in his chair, folding his arms. “I just like to always have something to do. I like to work.”
Kimble, a sort of modern-day renaissance man, perhaps better known to Mid-south professional wrestling fans as “King Cobra,” is retiring this week following almost 55 years overseeing the container division of the waste disposal company’s Memphis operation. During that span, the 72-year-old took exactly one sick day: a Monday in 1985 after breaking his right leg during a match in Huntsville, Ala., two nights earlier.
“Nothing defines reliable more than that,” said Gretchen Lowery, general manager at Republic Services.
That same work ethic is part of what established Kimble as one of the most popular figures – among fans and fellow wrestlers – on the territorial professional wrestling circuit. Along with strong in-ring ability, a well-chiseled aesthetic and an uncommon gift of gab, Kimble was the rare performer who elevated himself to championship status while also maintaining a successful day job.
WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler, himself a Memphian, got his start in the industry not long before Kimble, who answered an ad for a wrestling school run by Al “The Spider” Galento. Lawler said there was a term in the business for people like Kimble.
“Job guys,” said Lawler, who worked with Kimble extensively. “Back in the territory days, we wrestled in Memphis on Monday, Louisville on Tuesday, Evansville, Indiana, on Wednesday, Nashville or Lexington Thursday, Tupelo Friday, Saturday morning was TV and Saturday night was Nashville or Jonesboro. It was impossible for someone to work that schedule and have a 9-5 job. We had a ton of those (job) guys in Memphis back then. But Cobra was different. I mean, he was just better than most.”
Which meant Kimble was the exception to the rule, traveling the circuit for years, spending vacations wrestling overseas in Japan, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico and other locales, working with icons such as Andre The Giant, the Iron Sheik, Ernie Ladd and Hulk Hogan. And winning multiple championship belts along the way – a feat, Lawler said, very rarely accomplished by part-time wrestlers.
“I’d get out of (work) about 3:30, get a shower, change clothes. Somebody would drop me off at the airport, then in the morning, around 7, they’d pick me up at the airport and go to work,” said Kimble, who captured one championship in a win over Lawler in 1990. “Houston. Charlotte. Dallas. Miami. All over. Guys that would pick me up, they would say, ‘Man, that Jimmy Kimble, he comes to work every day on a 747.’ It wouldn’t be a 747, but that’s OK.”
“Thankfully, we’re close to the airport over here,” Lowery said with a laugh.
Never one to sit still for long, Kimble also ran a side business building and selling ornamental iron security doors and window guards. Armed with boundless ingenuity, he also made a name for himself as an inventor. In 1995, Kimble developed a spray system – he dubbed Odorestor – that was used to deodorize commercial dumpsters.
“I used to have to send the guys around to pour (deodorant) in the dumpsters,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m going to make this thing and make me a few bucks.’ It went over big and I got rich doing it.”
Kimble, who last wrestled two years ago against “Superstar” Bill Dundee, admits he could have retired decades ago. But he’s proud of the fact he has zero debt, pays cash for everything and plans to help his three grandchildren get through college.
Now, he’s looking forward to the challenge of keeping his calendar full.
“I do some compactor repair work. I’m good with electronics, too,” said Kimble, an avid fan of Tigers and Grizzlies basketball. “I bought some security cameras about two years ago and never put them up – I want to put them up. I’ve got a jig set up to build an ornamental fence around my yard. I want to do that. People say, ‘You should travel.’ But when I was wrestling I traveled all the time. I got tired of traveling.
“I tell people all the time, they say, ‘When are you going to retire? You need to stop and do some things that you want to do.’ I’ve lived my life good. I’ve done what I want to do. You really can’t ask for much more than that.”
Reach reporter Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com.