The BSC Mourns The Loss Of A Friend.       In Memory of Benny McKinzie

We are saddened to report the death on March 11th, 2007 of Benny McKinzie.  Benny was an enthusiastic supporter of The Bonsai Society of the Carolinas and an avid bonsai artist and collector.  His death was sudden and unexpected (a heart attack on a warm spring morning).  Most of the bonsai growers in this area know Benny either through his involvement with the BSC or as a helper at the Bonsai Learning Center.   Since Benny was a friend to many in our club, and because he was taken from us so unexpectedly,  we thought it would be appropriate to establish this web site for those who wish to remember him.  What follows is a reprint of his obituary which appeared in the Charlotte Observer along with the text of the Eulogy given by Randy Clark at his memorial service on March 13 at Cornerstone Baptist Church.  Many of you knew him well and counted him among your friends.  If  you have some remembrance or comment you would like to make regarding Benny McKinzie, we would like to include them here.  All you need to do is drop an e-mail to Randy Clark at randybonsai@carolina.rr.com and Randy will add them to this web page.  This memorial to Benny will remain in place for the next year.  We hope you will participate in this memorial to Benny and will  let us know how you felt about this remarkable man.  

Photo above shows Benny with granddaughter Sydney and his prize winning Japanese Black Pine at the Bonsai Learning Center's first annual Student Invitational Exhibition.  

Obituary

Benny Warren McKinzie, Jr.

Mr. McKinzie, 60, of Charlotte, died Sunday, March 11, 2007 at Carolinas Medical Center, University.

A memorial service will be held 12:00 PM Wednesday, March 14, at Cornerstone Baptist Church with the Rev. Jerry Woolery officiating. The family will receive friends for one hour prior to the service at the church.
Mr. McKinzie enjoyed his hobby of flying model airplanes with his brother, and was an avid Bonsai enthusiast.

He is survived by his loving wife, Bobbie; his daughter, Shannon Buboltz and her husband, Richard, and was a wonderful Beepaw to his special granddaughters, Jessica and Sydney. He is also survived by a brother, Samuel McKinzie, his wife, Suzanne, and their children, Tammy McAnulty and Robert McKinzie.

The family offers a special thank you to Dr. Tracy Latz for her many years of care and compassion shone to Benny.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Sydney Buboltz Scholarship Fund, c/o First Citizens Bank, PO Box 25637, Charlotte, NC 28229.

Arrangements are by Wilson Funeral & Cremation Service. 

Published in the Charlotte Observer on 3/13/2007.

In June of 2005 Chinese penjing artist Brooke Zhao was the guest artist at the Bonsai Learning Center's open house.  Brook created this excellent forest of Trident Maples as his demonstration.  The forest grouping was given to Benny later that day as a special thank you for all his help during the open house.  He is seen here with Mr. Zhao and his newly created bonsai.

Eulogy

Benny Warren McKinzie Jr.

by Randy Clark

In the motion picture "I never Sang For My Father," the central character makes a comment following the burial of his father. "Death," he says, "ends a life. But it does not end a relationship, which continues on in the minds of those who survive towards some kind of conclusion, which... perhaps... it never reaches."  I think most of us feel a little like that now. There is a lot of things we would like to have said to Mackey if he were still here.

But he is not. He is gone... and the opportunity to say the things we would like to have said have gone with him.

Benny McKinzie was a husband... a father... a grandfather and ... and a friend. In the 60 short years he spent on this earth I think it can be said, he did a pretty good job on all counts.

More than a decade ago, when I was a newcomer to Charlotte and just after Benny and I had first met... I mentioned to him, how different things were here in the south and how a newly transplanted yankee such as myself was having trouble adjusting.  "Well you know you’re not actually a yankee", Benny said. "Oh No," I replied, "How you figure that?" "Actually your a damn yankee," he said. "I thought all Yankees were damn Yankees as far as Southerners were concerned," I said. "Nope... There’s a difference." he said... "A yankee is someone who comes down here and visits and then goes back home. A damn yankee is someone who comes down here and lives."

It was then that I looked up and saw him smile. Actually it was not so much a smile as a grin.... The kind that said, "I’m sorry... The devil made me do that." It was Exactly the same expression the cat had on her face when we asked her what had happened to the canary while we were gone.

It was a wonderful smile... the kind that made those around him feel warm and fuzzy.... and one I was blessed to see over and over again through the years. And even though he did occasionally make reference to some of my more noteworthy yankee shortcomings , it was always with the same benevolent tone a father uses to correct his children. "Randy Clark, Bless his heart," he would say... "He’s from Minneapolis ya’ know."

As long as we are speaking of cats we should probably mention mine. Her name is Isis... but Benny always referred to her as "Miss Isis." And whenever he appeared in the back yard although it was presumably to see me... or to attend some bonsai function... it was actually to see how "Miss Isis" was doing.  Benny frequently house sat for me and looked after things at the nursery when Nancy and I needed to travel. He was a godsend that Nancy and I came to depend on through the years. He could have just watered trees, fed cats and left... but he didn’t. He always spent a little extra time scratching "Miss Isis’s" ears. She never once said "thank you." Like most cats, she figured it was the least he owed her. But Benny didn’t mind. It was the kind of guy he was.

He was the epitome of the kind of person I have learned is called a "True Southern Gentleman." Gentle, soft spoken, well read, intelligent, polite in the extreme and willing to express his very carefully considered opinions only if and when you asked him to.  My friendship with Mackey was an easy one. We shared the same politics, smoked the same brand of cigarettes and liked to wolf down the same kinds of hot and spicy foods. Plus we both loved bonsai. That was what originally brought us together. Benny was an excellent bonsai artist, in fact, his Japanese Black Pine bonsai won an award in the first ever Bonsai Learning Center Student Exhibition last year.

But as much as I thought I knew about my friend... I guess I didn’t know him as well as I thought , because Benny had a lot of other passions and interest that I am just now learning about. The model airplanes for one thing. I had to read his obituary to find that out. And when we attended his 60th birthday party last year, we found out, for the first time, that he played the guitar.  Considering we were both a couple of tired, burned out old hippies, you would have thought the guy would have mentioned his interest in the guitar sometime during the last ten years. Wouldn’t you?

Well, once I found out... I kept bugging him to get out his guitar and play something for me. I’m fascinated by musicians because the only thing I can play is the radio. "Yep," he would say, "I’ll do that real soon. I just need to get a couple of more lessons in first." I never did get him to play for me. Now that he’s gone, I’m never going to know whether he was being modest... or whether he was just a bad guitarist. Judging from the way he did everything else in his life... I’m going to go with modest.

Mackey always seemed to have a lot of things going on at once. What some would describe as "a lot of irons in the fire." I remember he showed up one afternoon with a case full of magnificent hand carved wooden fountain pens he had created himself. Another time he had an antique zippo lighter he had just won on an E-bay auction and was adding it to his collection.  He even tried to get me excited about his koi. Bless his heart. I told him that as far as I was concerned, KOI was the Japanese word for overpriced goldfish.

So what do you think. Bonsai, wood carving, zippo lighters, koi, model airplanes, guitars and lord only knows what else. I’m almost afraid to ask Bobbi. But if there was one thing Mackey had more of than irons in the fire... it was friends. And I’m happy to say that I count myself as one of them. I suspect you are as well.

So... our friend is gone. Now what do we do to fill the empty space that has suddenly appeared in our lives. How do we deal with such a sudden and unexpected departure.

Most of you know that I grow little trees in pots. I have been doing so for more than three decades now. I discovered an amazing fact early on. My trees could talk... and would willingly do so, as long as I would to stop talking myself and listen to what they had to say. In 35 years of growing and caring for them, my bonsai have taught me much . They have taught me discipline, order, patience and most of all... the true essence of what life is all about.

The bible tells us that the spirit of God dwells upon the face of the earth... It’s such a pontifical statement that most of us don’t really bother to think about it much.  My trees and I never think about it at all, ... but interestingly enough, they remind me of it on a daily basis. I’m not a religious man, but I know that the voice of creation is singing all around us. All we need do in order to hear it is to simply stop and listen ... listen to the sound of crickets on a summers night... Watch fireflies dancing in the dark... Smell the bloom of newly opened honeysuckle.... behold the glow of a sunset or the glory of the stars in the night sky. I know this is true... I know I am not alone.... I know there is a plan... and I think Mackey knew it too.

The branches of my bonsai remind me each season of the natural cycle of life and death. In the autumn their leaves fall to the ground and my trees appear to be dead. In the springtime they are reborn with new life. Based on what I see in my garden every single day, I believe it is not unreasonable for me to expect that something similar will happen for me someday. Or for Benny... Now.

Someone once said that "Life is something that happens to you while you are making other plans." Another someone once said, "Yer pays yer quarter and Yer takes Yer Chances." The point is that there are only a certain number of "tomorrow mornings" in each of our lives. We need to take advantage of missed opportunities whenever we can. I hope you are doing so... because I can assure you that Mr. Benny Warren McKinzie Jr. definitely was.

None of us is perfect. All of us are just like Mackey. We are trying to do the best we can with the cards we have been dealt. Things may have not worked out exactly as Benny and the rest of us had planned, but then... if you think about it..... we’re not really in charge of the plan .... are we. Why did the lord choose to take him now? Well, it is springtime... perhaps the deity needed a little help with the gardening. If that is in fact the case... we can only hope the lord likes Koi ponds.

While its true Mackey has left all of us behind, I am sure if he were here now... he would tell us to quit crying and stop worrying... Everything is gonna be allright.

Is Mackey in a better place? And is there someone looking after him better than we ever could. If you think you can’t answer that question then I would ask you to spend just a minute reflecting on all the new life emerging around you on this wonderful spring day. The trees and the flowers are speaking to you.... stop for a minute and listen to them. And although I am the last person in the world who should be quoting the bible, I would also ask you to consider the following verse from the 139th Psalms.

Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?

Whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascent up into heaven, thou art there.

If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:

Even there, shall thy hand lead me,

and thy right hand shall hold me.

In May of 2000 Benny was one of the participants in a Kusomono bonsai class conducted by Atlanta artist Harry Able.  He is show here with two freshly created masterpieces.  

Personal Rememberance From Our Club Members and Benny's Friends

 I will miss Benny McKinzie.  I have missed seeing him at the Society meetings for quite a while now.  I don’t remember when I met Benny, he just seemed to come into my life around the same time as Bonsai did.  I am glad he did. Benny was a friend in Bonsai, a smiling face, quick to laugh and simply an enjoyable person to be around.  One of the last times I saw Benny was when he was coming out of a Christmas Party at a restaurant I was heading into for a Christmas Party.  We both thought it strange and funny that two Bonsai guys would renew their friendship at a restaurant at a Mall, not in a nursery, or at a Bonsai Show, or at least around some trees. 

When I think of Benny, I want to remember him as I see him in the picture with his granddaughter at the top of this page .

  Martin Sweeney

What a shock it was to hear that Benny is no longer with us on this earth. Then again, he still remains in our hearts and our minds. What a great man.

He was kind, helpful, humorous, and above all, a true friend. His enthusiasm in bonsai was infectious. When I was bitten by the bonsai bug, I thought I had it bad. A number of years later I met Benny and witnessed, firsthand, what an acute case was. One of his shohin Kingsville Boxwood was absolute perfection. It was exactly what a miniature tree should be, without actually being considered “miniature”. It was a full sized oak viewed from a hundred yards away. His care and skill in making that bonsai were obvious. He understood bonsai. I said to myself right then and there, here’s a guy I’m gonna like. Many years later, I still feel that way. What a privilege I was given by having a friendship with Benny. A man who loved his family without condition. He always seemed to be talking about his family or asking about my kids. His affection and caring about others was without question or ambiguity.

 I have several trees in my collection that had a close relationship with Benny. We stood and studied them for quite some time, and on different occasions. Benny even helped me style one of them. These bonsai now have even more value to me. When I see them, I will know that Benny is there, smiling, and a friend for all eternity.

God bless you Benny. I love you brother.

John Dixon

 My wife Freida (Pettit) and I both attended grammar (Thomasboro Elementary), junior high (Wilson), and high school at West Mecklenburg with Benny.  Actually, in grammar school we all called him Mackie and it was only in high school that he became Benny to us.

We were closer to him in grammar school than later, and since he did not attend any reunions (at least, not any at which photos were made of the attendees) we haven’t seen him in 45 years; but we both remember his warm smile,  great personality, and sense of humor from those days.   I can’t ever remember him not smiling or laughing.  He was one of those folks who was a pleasure to know and to be around.

Mackie was one of a notorious group, along with my wife, who got into some mischief in the 6^th grade (1957/1958).  This class was located away from the main building in another building next to the gymnasium and just behind the Thomasboro Soda Shop.  There was a small group of girls and a couple of boys who customarily chose to stay in class during recess while the rest of us went out to play softball.   Somewhere along the way, these girls convinced Mackie and another boy to go next door to the soda shop and get them some Cokes and candy bars.   This became a regular occurrence during recess, but when it was found out, of course, the authorities took a dim view of it.  But today it makes a good story, don’t you think?

We are certainly saddened by his death and extend our sincere condolences to his family. 

Steve and Freida Byers ,  Havelock, NC

What a shock to find out that my old friend died over a year ago.

Mackie and I grew up in Beachwood Acres with Steve Gunnells, Dale Northey, Mike Stroud, Randy Harrill, Gary Lemmond, Ricky Liles, Becky Mullis, Toby Brown, Carl, Dennis, & Bobby Hamm, Dewey & Connie Moose and myself.  We all lived on the West side of I-85.  As a matter of fact, we watched I-85 being constructed from the get-go!

Mackie and I were best of friends.  We spent countless hours in his house picking on his little brother Sammy while we pantomimed the Beach Boys in front of  his picture window with the stereo blasting at its loudest.  Mackie would sing lead and I would play the guitar (broom) to perfection!  We would smoke and act like we were big.  Actually, Mackie didn't have to act big because he was!

Mackie's pride and joy was his '58 blue and white Pontiac!  He made a cut-out on the exhaust coming off the block with a pull-wire coming through the floor board so the passenger could open and close the valve off the straight exhaust.  Do  you know how much noise that creates?  We would pass other vehicles and at just the right time, open that cut-out and give the other car the full dose of straight exhaust noise created by that 4 barrel 8 cylinder big Pontiac engine.  The noise would be so loud, most of the cars would pull off the road and stop... maybe for hygiene reasons!

Mackie had a lead foot and got more speeding tickets than anyone I knew.  We both decided that his death would be from a traffic accident from his speedy driving.  He would lose his driver's license and then depend on me to shuttle him around our favorite spots, i.e.., Shoney's, Burger King, etc., in my twilight-turquoise, 4-speed, 4-barrel, 289 - 1965 hard top Mustang.  We took that car to Myrtle Beach a few times and had great times.

Once, while driving his Pontiac down Wilkinson Blvd., I was riding "shotgun" and Mackie driving.  He would put both arms on the driver's window with his head facing to the rear like he was asleep.  I would steer with my left foot as I had my elbow and head out the passenger's window.  Obviously, we were trying to attract the girls as we passed them on the street.  It would appear that both of us in the front seat were asleep while the car was moving at the speed limit down the road.  I don't recommend this to anyone and if I saw my kids or grandkids doing it, I'd remove them from the earth .

Mackie and I were best of friends up until I left for the Air Force November 1, 1965.  Neither of us went directly to college after graduating in '64.  Mackie had high blood pressure and was rejected from the military but I knew he wanted to serve.  Halloween night, 1965, we both took our own cars to Gastonia.  On our way back home, after midnight, on 85, we were driving about 100-110 mph!  Mackie was in front by about a hundred yards.  I looked in my rearview mirror only to see what most people do not want to see... the flashing red lights.  Yep!  Got a ticket.  Two weeks later, I'm in boot camp in San Antonio.  All the other GI's are getting love letters from their girlfriends; I get a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles asking me to surrender my driver's license!  Oh, well!  What do I need a driver's license for while in boot camp?  Mackie!!!  He's the one who made me get that ticket!!!!!   Mackie!!!!!

I only saw Mackie once after that.  Many years after I got out of the Air Force and settled here in Phoenix, I arranged for a reunion between him, Steve Gunnells, and Mike Stroud, who moved to the east side of Charlotte, sometime in the '70's.  I never saw Mackie at any of our class reunions that I attended and never heard from anyone at the reunions that he had ever attended one.  I never communicated to him by phone or letter.   I always wanted to know where he was and wanted to continue our friendship.

I would really appreciate getting in touch with Sammy, his brother, if anyone knows his whereabouts.  Where did Mackie live?  I knew he was dating Bobbi just before I left for the military.  I knew they married but have yet to know anything more about him, his family, his career, etc.  What a loss!  I really regret losing contact with him.

This website is wonderful. It's the first time I have seen my old friend since.  I never knew he had a love for bonsai.  All I knew was he loved girls, smoking, and his 58 Pontiac.  I miss my friend.