Former Hobo King dies in Ogden - A Sesquicentennial Feature

“The Hard Rock Kid was laid to rest Saturday,” wrote Ogden Reporter Gary Alban. “It was a simple, dignified service marred occasionally by the clicks and whirs of cameras and the flashing of strobes, but surely the King would have said, “God bless you, brother!”

His Ogden friends were the first to mourn the Kid’s death.

John (Hardrock Kid) Mislen stopped in Ogden for his yearly visit enroute to the annual Hobo Day in Britt, Iowa where hoboes from across the country gather  each year to elect a new king. He talked with the townsfolk about his life as a hobo. A local photographer even stopped him on the street and asked permission to photograph him, to which Mislen graciously obliged.

“His old scraggly face, his white hair and full beard made him a storybook character, a photographer’s delight,” reported Alban.

That night The Kid died sleeping under a tree in the city park. He was a familiar figure in the area, so much that in 1966 he was made an honorary member of the Ogden Brothers of the Brush during early Centennial activities. Funeral director Dave Carson said the Kid had showed up in Ogden every year for the past 20 years. The community, as a final tribute, wanted to take care of the funeral arrangements. 

The funeral drew national attention.

“Who would have ever imagined the far reaching impact that would result after The Ogden Reporter released the story that the body of a former King of the Hoboes had been found under a tree in the city park,” said Alban in his weekly column. He told of The ABC radio network calling, a Los Angeles radio station interviewing funeral director Dave Carson and a New York radio station interviewing Steam Train Maury in Ogden. An AP newswire story was picked up by papers all across the country. 

Read more in the Oct. 19 issue of The Ogden Reporter.