James Allan Hendrix, 82; Father of Legendary ‘60s Electric Guitarist

James Allan Hendrix, 82, father of ‘60s electric guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday in Seattle.

Hendrix, a former plumber, electrician and gardener, was chairman of Experience Hendrix, a family company dealing with his rock icon son’s musical legacy and headed by his daughter, Janie L. Hendrix.

Jimi Hendrix, who taught himself to play an old ukulele that his father gave him before moving on to the guitar, died of a drug overdose in 1970.

In 1993, the elder Hendrix filed a multimillion-dollar fraud lawsuit against his former attorney and several corporations in an effort to recover the rights to his son’s music. A settlement was reached two years later that returned the rights to Jimi Hendrix’s music and image to his father, the sole heir to his estate.

The youngest of four children whose parents were vaudevillians, the elder Hendrix grew up mostly in Canada.

When his father died in the mid-1930s, he dropped out of school to go to work. He moved to Seattle around 1940 and remained there after winning a Golden Gloves boxing tournament.

In 1999, his memoir “My Son Jimi” was published.