Love's Real Stories

Ken DuVall, local Real Estate icon, loved laughing, and knew more jokes than all of us. He was something else.

Ken was teacher and mentor; guide and guru. He said, “Follow me, and then rise to your own level of incompetence.”

The man loved to have fun, but he was serious about doing a good job. He knew more about Real Estate than all of us.

KDV passed away two years ago July 22. His friends quote him and talk about him a lot, but this time of year, memories of him come around a lot more. Memories like KDV smoking one of his hand-rolled specialty-tobacco cigarettes and blowing the smoke out the skylight of his car; lecturing a roomful of people who are doubled-up laughing as he fires off a string of jokes; waving a Real Estate contract in the air saying, “You gotta love the details and technicalities in this business, babe, but above all, you gotta love people. Every client deserves a fair shake, no matter who they are. No resentment! No bitterness!”

KDV was also known as “Hollywood.” He grew up in the Hollywood Hills and was an actor and stuntman in “the picture business.” He flipped motorcycles, jumped from moving car to moving car, and fell from great heights. He dove 100 feet from the top of the Hollywood Dam for one movie stunt.

“Good thing there was no audio for that role,” he said, “or you would have heard me screaming and swearing all the way down. But the gig paid big,” he said.

He spent time on movie sets. He was a gladiator in “Spartacus,” a bad-boy in “Hot Rod Girl;” a jailbird with Elvis in “Jail House Rock.” He hung out with Robert Blake, Steve McQueen, James Dean, Peter Fonda, James Arness, Dennis Hopper, and Robert Mitchum.

KDV was a weekend motorcycle racer. He rode 100-mile endurance races through the desert and paved-track races on the speedway. He flew over jumps, slid through turns, got stomped and rolled, and found his way to the winner’s circle.

KDV’s day-job was sales, always sales, old-school-door-to-door sales. He sold aluminum siding with his dad when he was fifteen years old. He moved on to steam-presses, coffee-makers, intercom systems, T.V. antennas, and insurance. “I’ve spent more time in other people’s living rooms than my own,” he said.

KDV got his Real Estate license in 1963, and it was love at first sale. He sold desert lots in Lake Havasu City, Arizona; mountain lots in Tahoe-Donner here in Northern California; then foothill lots when he managed the Paradise Pines project and fell in love with the area. “I felt like I moved into a Norman Rockwell painting,” he said.

From 1977 until 2012, KDV sold North Valley Real Estate. He was a friend to Realtors, clients, and people off the street. It was worth stopping by his office and suffering his string of rapid-fire jokes to hear his advice and wisdom.

“Remember,” he said, “youth and skill is always overcome by age and treachery.” And: “Experience is important, but luck is essential.” And: “Everyone is entitled to my opinion.”

He also said, “We’re in this life to live it, not just exist. Live with no regrets. And laugh, my friend, laugh.”

Another memory: KDV hoisting a Big Al’s chili dog aloft and exclaiming to anyone and everyone in the place, “Feast your eyes upon this, my friends! Behold the sweet spoils of victory!”

Hollywood Ken DuVall: Something else.

RIP KDV.