Howard Bennett Didn't Let `Klinker' Keep Him From Living A Rich Life

A "klinker" is a mistake in music. A local musician for 50 years, Howard Duane Bennett came to be known over the years as "Klink."

He acquired the nickname while attending Seattle's Lincoln High School (now closed), where he played saxophone with the school band. One day, a piece that the band was performing called for a rest, or musical pause. Everyone paused but him.

When someone called out, "Who hit that klinker?" he unwittingly acquired a nickname that stuck with him for decades.

But "Klink" does not do justice in describing Mr. Bennett, who mastered several instruments in his lifetime and played with fine local musical groups including the Bellevue Philharmonic Orchestra. He also acquired numerous honors in his "other" career as a hair fashion stylist.

He died Monday after living with Alzheimer's disease for several years. He was 72.

He was born April 4, 1921, in Omaha, Neb., but moved to Seattle two years later. At Lincoln, he began playing the tenor, alto and baritone sax and clarinet and later took up the violin and soprano sax.

He met his wife, Nila Morrison, about one year before Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbor. At the time, he was playing with the Washington State National Guard's band for the 146th Field Artillery in Tacoma. The two married in 1943.

Mr. Bennett worked with the War Foods Administration during World War II but continued to play Big Band and ballroom dance music. When the war ended, he decided to pursue an interest he'd long held in hair styling and enrolled in a beauty college.

He worked as a stylist for The Bon Marche until Edward White hired him to work at his Capitol Hill hair fashion salon, The House of Edward, which catered to Seattle's carriage trade. Mr. Bennett bought the salon in 1953 and operated it until he developed Alzheimer's disease in 1986.

Throughout his life, he pursued a variety of interests including acting and directing in community theater, writing children's stories, skiing and sailing. He even made a cameo appearance in the movie, "Harry in Your Pocket," in which he played a salesman.

He also traveled avidly with his wife and two sons, Gary of Deer Harbor, and Randy of Vancouver, B.C. But once he became ill, much of his energy disappeared.

"We had a wonderful life together," Mrs. Bennett said. "It was fortunate that we could do so much earlier, for once he developed Alzheimer's, he had to slow down."

The Bennett's celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January by spending a quiet afternoon together at a convalescent home for Alzheimer's patients where Mr. Bennett was staying.

Besides his wife and sons, he is survived by his brother, Richard Bennett, and sister, Dorothy Cohoon of Seattle as well as four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Memorial services are at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home, 11027 Meridian Ave. N.

Memorials may be made to the Puget Sound Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association or the Children's Hospital and Medical Center.