Jimmy Decker, 72; Pioneer of Malibu Lived Rural Life

Jimmy Decker, a colorful Malibu pioneer who shot deer for food and blew up boulders for income, has died at the age of 72.

Decker, who suffered from cancer and diabetes, died April 8 at his home on rustic Decker Road, Mary Dale said Tuesday. Dale’s husband, Jeff, was raised by Decker.

Born Jan. 5, 1918, in Tioga, Tex., Decker moved to Malibu with his family when he was 10. The Deckers first lived in a tent on what is now Decker Canyon Campground, where a memorial picnic is planned Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Decker’s ancestors first settled the rugged coastal canyon in the 1860s.

“We’re just independent little hillbillies,” Decker proudly told The Times years after he grew up and followed his father into the unusual occupation of dynamiter.

Decker raised chickens, rabbits and ducks, grew vegetables and fruits and tended beehives--losing 60 hives and 5,000 pounds of honey in the disastrous 1985 fire that razed Decker Canyon. He also lost nine cars and trucks in that fire, which he termed “the nastiest” of the five blazes (1935, 1956, 1958, 1978, 1985) that he had survived.

An accomplished hunter and fisherman, Decker winked at the latter-day laws banning hunting with firearms in the Santa Monica Mountains. He proudly displayed more than 40 mounted deer heads in his living room.

Although dedicated to his hilly homeland, Decker was no friend of environmentalists, the California Coastal Commission or state and federal park officials.

“All that bunch of rots,” he told The Times. “I don’t like any of them.”

Environmentalists thought of him as an anachronism.

“He’s as early Malibu as anyone could be,” said one. “He’s seeking a way of life that no longer exists.”

Like his father, Decker dynamited sections of his rocky coastal area to clear the way for roads. He neatly broke into four pieces a 120-ton boulder that threatened beach homes in 1979 after bulldozers dislodged it from its perch above the Pacific Coast Highway.

“My life, my complete life, is explosives,” he said. “Especially boulders--I just love to break boulders.”

Decker is survived by his wife, Millie, two brothers, Earl Decker of Ojai and Clyde Decker of Malibu, seven nieces and nephews, and three stepchildren.