Elijah M. “Matt” Craighead

Elijah M. (Matt) Craighead III, 76, of Rock Island, Illinois, well-known area musician, died Saturday, August 9, 2008, in Trinity Pathway Hospice at Terrace Park, Bettendorf, Iowa.

A Memorial Gathering and Jam Session for family, friends, and fellow musicians will be 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Friday, August 22nd, at The Col Ballroom in Davenport, Iowa. Following cremation, interment will be in Arlington National Cemetery. Trimble Funeral and Cremation Center, Moline, is entrusted with assisting the family. Memorials may be made to the Bix Beiderbecke Youth Band or the Blackhawk College Jazz Society.

Elijah Mathew Craighead III was born February 9, 1932, in Bluefield, West Virginia, the son of Elijah M. Craighead Jr., MD, and Josephine Lavington Craighead, RN. He married Verna Banks on June 3, 1961. He married Julie Werland DePorter in 1992, in Galesburg, Illinois.

Matt served in the US Army from 1949 to 1958, in the Army Band in occupied Japan and Korea. He was employed as an Engineer at the Rock Island Arsenal from 1973 until he retired as Deputy Director of the Production Directorate, Headquarters AMCOM. He previously worked at the Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia and the Picatinney Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey.

He was an accomplished jazz tenor saxophonist, and played with many local orchestras, most recently the Johnnie Kaye, Tony Hamilton, and Steve Little Orchestras. He was an adjunct professor in music at Blackhawk College and gave private lessons. He was a member of the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Society and the Catfish Jazz Society, and was looking forward to the September reunion of the Tenth Army Band with which he had played.

Matt is survived by his wife, Julie; a brother and sister-in-law, Jon and Beth Craighead and their two daughters of Pocono Pines, Pennsylvania, a grandson, Jonathon Houston; a step-daughter, Captain Jennifer Wood and her husband David, serving with the U. S. Army in Iraq; a stepson, John DePorter of Portland, Oregon; aunts, Virleyn Baker of St. Louis, Missouri, and Henrietta Craighead of Bluefield, West Virginia; cousins, Ettice DeLoache of Luzerne, Switzerland, Virlyn Grant of Altadena, California, and Clyde and Earline Craighead of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Alison Craighead, in 1986.

Matt’s family invites friends to sign his guestbook, share a story about him, or light a candle in his memory at www.TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.