Homeless Man Killed by Flood Is Mourned : Storms: Friends leave two wreaths at the edge of the Ventura River in memory of Jim Butler. He is called a ‘gentle spirit.’

A small group of mourners walked slowly along the Ventura River just north of Main Street on Wednesday and paused on the levee overlooking the river brush where Jim Butler made his home.

Under a brilliant blue sky, there was little evidence of the surging water and mud that swept down the river earlier this month, smothering Butler.

But as a reminder of the flood that took the homeless man’s life Feb. 12, his friends arranged two modest wreaths at a place they dubbed “Jim’s Corner,” on the river’s edge.

“We do miss him here,” David Lee told the gathering of about a dozen social workers, river dwellers and curious onlookers. “But my heart is joyous he is home with the Father.”

Described as a quiet man who kept to himself, Butler, 32, had lived in the riverbed for about nine months.

A native of New Jersey, he had spent two years in the Navy and once worked for a circus in Florida.

Butler spent much of his life on the streets, making a living by selling aluminum cans that he found in trash dumpsters.

Friends said he would sometimes go looking for cans at 3 a.m., after the bars had taken out their trash.

When he was done with his rounds, he would return to the bamboo lean-to he shared with Bernard Boulanger in what outsiders call “Hobo Jungle,” where dozens of homeless people lived before the storms.

As the Ventura River started to swell two weeks ago, Boulanger said he advised Butler to move with him to higher ground.

But Butler chose to stay behind.

He borrowed a pair of swimming trunks from Boulanger so he could wade to safety before the river became too rough.

That was the last time that his friend saw him alive.

On Feb. 12, during a heavy downpour, Ventura County rescuers plucked Butler’s body from the murky water.

Officials for the Ventura County coroner’s office said they had planned to place the man’s remains in a common grave because his family members, who live on the East Coast, could not afford a burial.

But the Ventura County Chapter of the American Red Cross said it would pay for the funeral.

Chapter Executive Director Brian Bolton, who helped organize the memorial service Wednesday, said staff members are still making burial arrangements with Butler’s father, who also is homeless.

Boulanger said Butler was the kind of man who would give his last dollar to a friend.

“He was a good man,” said Boulanger, choking back tears. “He’d give you his last cigarette or a couple of bucks.”

Renee Hall, a social worker from the homeless advocacy group Project Understanding, said Butler was a “gentle spirit.”

“He always had a smile,” she said.

But not everyone participating in Wednesday’s memorial service knew Butler.

John Troutman of Ventura said he read about the incident and wanted to stop by to pay homage to the homeless man.

“I’m real disturbed this could happen,” Troutman said. “This is the only place in Ventura where homeless people can live without being harassed, yet it was a sentence of death.

“I think we owe this to him,” Troutman said of the service. “I need to do something to show him I care.”