Services will be tonight for Ernest G. (Blackie) Hinkle, a resident of Broward County since 1951 and the former owner of a popular bait and tackle shop for 22 years.
Mr. Hinkle died at Plantation General Hospital on Sunday after a long illness. He was 66.
“He was quite a legend,” said Sandy Lynas, who bought Hinkle Bait and Tackle Shop from Hinkle’s successor in 1983. “His name was known all over the country. When people came in from out of state, they’d always go to his shop.”
A native of Kentucky, Mr. Hinkle moved to Fort Lauderdale from Evansville, Ind., where he worked as a welder for International Harvester Corp. in the 1940s.
In 1955, he opened the bait shop in the 4600 block of State Road 84 west of Fort Lauderdale, which he operated until he sold it in 1977 because of poor health, said his wife, Betty, of Plantation.
“He sold bait even before the shop was built,” she said. “People would drive along State Road 84 and see a sign that read, ‘Future bait and tackle shop,’ and they would ask if he couldn’t sell them some bait right away.”
Once the store opened, it was “jammed from 4 a.m. with people going out to the Everglades,” Lynas said.
“He sold worms and crickets before they were even known as bait for freshwater fishing,” Lynas said. “He really was incredible.”
Lynas and her husband opened a new outlet in Davie in 1985 under the same name and then closed the first store in 1986 when the construction of Interstate 595 forced the place to be torn down.
Mr. Hinkle was a member of the Worship Center Baptist Church. He also was a member of Masonic Lodge No. 153 in Madisonville, Ky., and of the Scottish Rite in Lake Worth.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his mother, Mary; and one brother, Karney, both of Mt. Vernon, Ind.
Visiting hours will be from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. today at Fred Hunter’s University Drive Home, 2401 S. University Drive, Davie. A service will be at 8:30 p.m. today at the funeral home.
