Billiards parlor owner and top player Butterfield dies

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2001 | 9:52 a.m.

At age 14 Frank Butterfield left home to earn a living as a pool hustler and escape the poverty he knew as a child.

Butterfield used the lessons he learned as a young pool shark to later operate two Las Vegas billiards parlors -- Family Billiards and the Classic Club -- and win several Nevada individual and team pool titles.

Frank E. Butterfield Sr., who for the last 10 years has been a marketing representative for North Las Vegas and ABC Cab companies, died Saturday of heart failure at a local hospital. He was 71.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 48 years will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave. Visitation is scheduled from 9 to 11 a.m. Burial will be in Palm Valley View Memorial Park.

"Frank was a colorful fixture around here for a long time -- very polite and very friendly," Henry Nogiec, longtime owner of the Cue Club in Las Vegas, said. "Frank enjoyed swapping pool stories with the other regulars."

In the 1970s Butterfield was a member of the Danny's Bar team that captured six state team 9-ball championships. Butterfield twice won the state's Best All-Around Player title.

Born April 22, 1929, in Bedford, Ind., Butterfield was the second eldest of six children of limestone quarry worker Frank J. Butterfield and the former Maude King. Frank was 12 years old when his father died of a brain tumor, and his mother took in laundry to eke out a meager existence for her family.

Frank dropped out of school but later earned an equivalency diploma and attended Mexico City College, where he studied art. As an artist, Butterfield worked in oils, watercolors and charcoal. Three of his works will be on display at his funeral, his family said.

At age 18 Butterfield joined the Air Force and served in the Korean War. He settled in Las Vegas in 1953 and, in the late '50s, leased the pool hall at the old West Hills bowling lanes.

Butterfield opened Family Billiards at Tropicana Avenue and Maryland Parkway in 1969, sold it in 1980 and opened the 32-table Classic Club on West Sahara Avenue, operating it for four years.

Butterfield is survived by his wife of 49 years, Stella Butterfield; two daughters, Starr Lyn Butterfield and Tracy Ann Butterfield; and one son, Frank Edward Butterfield Jr., all of Las Vegas; one sister, Johanna Brown of Bedford, Ind.; and two brothers, John David Butterfield of Tooele, Utah, and Jack Dean Butterfield of Bedford. He was preceded in death by a brother, Bobby Butterfield and a sister, Evelyn Nelson.

The family requests donations to the Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas Unit, 2530 E. Carey Ave., North Las Vegas, NV 89030.