George Jeffery Hildebrandt

George Jeffery Hildebrandt, 79, of Englewood, Colorado, was welcomed into Heaven on October 15, 2025.

He was born on September 4, 1946, in Kansas City, Kansas, to Floyd and Peggy Hildebrandt. He was a graduate of Ruskin High School and attended Southwest Missouri State and Columbia School of Broadcasting. Jeff served in the Army National Guard and later as a volunteer Firefighter/EMT. He married Luanne Hummel on June 16, 1973, in Wichita, Kansas, and the couple had two children – Erin and Andrew.

He worked in radio and television for nearly 60 years, starting his career at KWBB and KFDI in Wichita. In 1977 the family moved to Northern Kentucky when Jeff took a job at WLW Radio in Cincinnati. He transitioned to WLWT television where he worked as an assignment editor, broadcast producer, and promotions producer. In 1994, Jeff took a job at Starz Encore, located in Denver, where he would join the Westerns Channel as a producer. In this role he got to live out his cowboy dreams, creating content telling the “stories behind the story” of western television and movies. He interviewed tv and movie cowboys and cowgirls, stuntmen and women, musicians and historians. He won numerous awards for his work promoting and keeping alive western tv and movie tradition.

Jeff merged his talent for rhyme and his passion for westerns and began writing cowboy poetry. He was named True West Magazine's "Best Living Cowboy Poet for 2011" and performed cowboy poetry at Carnegie Hall and on the Great Wall of China, becoming the only man at the time to ever perform such poetry in mainland China.

Jeff used his larger-than-life personality, his love of people and gift for writing poetry to serve his Savior at church throughout his life, most recently at Cherry Hills Community Church. He could be found at the curb in front of the church most Sundays, helping people out of their cars, greeting members and guests alike with a warm smile and friendly hug or handshake. He wrote and performed poetry for the Grandparents Community Group, Sunday School classes, and Manna Cares, the Cherry Hills food pantry mission. He spent his Tuesday mornings working at the Manna ministry, where he enjoyed greeting families alongside a team of faithful volunteers.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Luanne; his children Erin (Brad) Sutton, Andrew (Rose) Hildebrandt; four grandchildren – Catesby and Collier Sutton, Logan and Lincoln Hildebrandt; and a younger sister, Cathy Carleton of Springfield, MO.

Family, friends, and others are invited to the Dixon Chapel at Cherry Hills Community Church, 3908 Grace Boulevard, Highlands Ranch, CO on November 11 at 1 p.m. to honor a life defined by love for Jesus Christ and service to those around him, always sprinkled with bad puns and dad jokes.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making donations to Manna Care at Cherry Hills Community Church. To learn more about Manna or make a donation, follow this link: https://www.chcc.org/get-help/#manna