June of 2013 Jim was transported to the Sutter hospital in Jackson and was dignosed with a brain tumor. He spent two months at Kit Carson care center in Jackson where he bragged about the care and the food. He said he felt more like he was in a hotel instead of a care facility.
He peacefull passed away at 12;05 am September 2, 2013

December of 2011 Pat transported Jim to Paso Robles for an emergency back surgery so he could be close to family during his recovery. Jim was frustrated with his slow recovery and kept sighting his recovery from his previous back surgery in the 50's, where he took off to Hawaii and was riding bronc's ten days after his surgery. Out of desperation, Jackie checked him out of the care facility, Vineyard Hills in Templeton, where they said they could no longer provide physical therapy for him because he had plateaued, and took him home to her place for a week. Her house was not set up for Jim's needs but they managed. She used a pallet and a forklift to raise him to the platform above the steps so he could get in the house. He steadily got stronger and fineally walked all the way around her house. He wanted to return to his place at Pat's, so Jackie and Hailey loaded him up and took him home. The trip went well, they stopped for mexican food Jim's favorite and then on to his house. He must have overdone it because by the time they got to his trailer he managed to get to the door and then just poured himself in on the floor. Jackie and Hailey were frustrated and worried but he insisted he was going to stay there. Within a couple of weeks Jim had figured out his own physical therapy and aquired a push lawnmower. Pat said he pushed it everywhere and then he was working ground on the tractor. An amazing recovery.

Pat came by to visit with Jim one day at the Jackson's and invited him to go on the road for a couple of weeks to some rodeos and some fishing. They worked out a deal and Jim moved to Pat's where he helped take care of the place and the stock while Pat was on the road. A true friendship based on a solid foundation. They worked together falling trees, cutting firewood, building pens, corrals, shelters, a round pen, an arena and whole lot of other things. They had an extensive shop where they made some custom works of art out of wood. The apple orchard was always being tended to and nurtured to produce some of the best apples to be eaten. I am certain if that canyon could echo some of the reminiscing that went on between the two of them we would all be laughing and crying at the same time. I know Pat will miss him. But I also know each day Pat will have a reminder that Jim was there. There were a lot of good times they had.

After Sue and Jim divorced, he moved to Shandon to live on the ranch owned by his son in law and daughter along with their children  (Bill, Jackie, James & Hailey Jackson). He lived there from 1993 to 1997. He helped on the ranch where they grew grain and sod and raised cattle and horses. He spent a great deal of time with James and Hailey just being a grandpa. Bill and Jackie also had a wagon and carriage business that Jim often assisted with the watching the grandchildren or helping on the wagon or hitching the horses.

Jim and Sue were married in the late 80's. They spent their time together erecting metal buildings, mainly airplane hangers. They spent a lot of time in Mexico, where they purchased a place to call home. Many days were spent combing the beach for new items to incorporate into their home. Jim had an amazing ability to build wonderful things out of other people's discarded items. They shared a zest for life and adventure.  Jim enjoyed the challenge of matching Indian leg wrestlers with Sue, she was very good, due to her technique. Jim aquired a colt and gave it to Sue, only to discover that Sue and the colt both had the same amount of knowledge about each others species. Sue had decided to teach the colt how to eat carrots and suger cubes out of her mouth, to her surpise he bit her lip. She spent days avoiding Jim so he would not know what had happened,  once he had all the facts he just smiled and shook his head.

Jim and Tammy were married sometine in the early 70's.  At that time, Jim had an earthmoving and farming business "JM Ranching". He did a considerable amount of construction for developments, building pads, roads, and dams including the Nacimiento dam. Later he became the manager for Pioneer Transit Mix where Tammy also worked. They worked hard and they played hard. They enjoyed jeep racing, flying, water skiing, fishing, bowling and traveling. They took up jeep racing and competed all over California and Nevada. They also drove the Baja. They vacationed a lot in Mexico. They had a condo at lake Nacimiento where they spent a lot of time water skiing and enjoying the lake. Of course, whatever Jim did he excelled. He and Tammy had a lot of trophies from jeep racing. Jim often bowled a 300 and he was a really good water skiier. He also was pretty handy with a pool cue and was known as a pool shark. 

Jim competed primarily in bareback riding and bull dogging (steer wrestling) and was a valued member of teams at rodeos where the wild horse race or wild cow milking were on the program. His lack of fear, quickness and unusual strength made him an expert "mugger."   He was also a team roper primarily in local events and rodeos. During his rodeo career he won or placed at most of the major rodeos held in the United States with one highlight being winning the average and a saddle in the bull dogging at Madison Square Garden in 1950. It was there he met his first wife, Merna, who was employed by the publicity department at the Garden, representing California promoting and riding in the rodeo. She was one of five chaperoned girls with similar responsibilities. They saw each other again when Jim was drafted during the Korean War, after basic training in South Carolina and more training with the Army Corps of Engineers in Fort Huachuca, Arizona he was sent to Camp Roberts  in 1951 to attend Leadership Training School. They began dating and were married in 1952.  A few months after they married Jim was sent overseas to France where he played football for the Army European team distinguishing himself by kicking the longest recorded punt at the time as documented in the Stars and Stripes newspaper. As a result he was offered a football scholarship to attend Georgia Technological Institute (Georgia Tech) to be their kicker. However he declined saying that when his tour of duty with the army was up he planned on going on the rodeo circuit.
The marriage lasted 16 years. They had  5 children, two of whom preceded Jim in death, an infant daughter and their only son, James Blair "Bubba"  Hailey, three remarkable, resilient daughters survive: Jamie born in 1954, Jill in 1959, Jacqueline "Jackie" in 1961(husband Bill Jackson). In addition to the three daughters survivors include 6 beautiful and talented grandchildren, James and Hailey Jackson, Monty Renfrow, Luke Kies, Ben and Lance Deleissegues  and 7  great-grandchildren.

When Jim was 14 he left home to live in Arizona with his mother and her husband Carl Dossey.They were both active in rodeo and Carl helped develop Jim's ability and lifelong interest in competing. They owned the Western Tavern Steak House in Chandler and the Cross Y Ranch 50 miles north of Phoenix where they ultimately moved full time. Jim's mother was the well-known trick rider, Berenice Taylor Dossey, who performed in Europe and throughout the United States and Canada during her career. Carl was first a contestant and later a respected rodeo judge throughout the United States.  Carl was one of the developers and proponents of the first electronic system for timed events in rodeos that Jim occasionally helped operate. Carl was killed in a rodeo parade accident in Chandler in 1955 reaching from his horse to fling his son Eddie off his pony to safety as a team of run-away horses bore down on them. Berenice later married Frank Bolen, a family friend. She died in 1974 of breast cancer in Idaho where she was living at the time.During summers Jim traveled the country with them to rodeos and during the school year distinguished himself  in junior rodeos.
His high school years were spent in Chandler, Arizona where he was a member of the football team.  After graduation he received a scholarship to play football at Brigham Young University in Utah. But when football season was over he left BYU to go rodeo and never returned. This call to rodeo was a repeated pattern in the course of his life.  

Jim was born in Ellensburg, Washington, July 12, 1929, the only child of James Hailey(22) and Berenice Blair Hailey(16). His parents were divorced when he was a baby and he spent the first 14 years of his life in Ellensburg with his father's family doted on by his father's sisters and both his paternal and maternal grandmothers. Both parents’ remarriages resulted in Jim having two half-brothers, Linus Hailey who preceded Jim in death, Eddie (Dossey) Bolen and one half- sister, Cinde (Dossey) Barthelmess.