Lloyd H. "Kinky" Bayers was born July 6, 1911 in Juneau to Vera Soboleff Bayers (daughter of Father John Soboleff) and Harry "Tay Bayers," a boatman from Maine, who came to Killisnoo with his two brothers and worked for the Alaska Oil and Guano Company, manufacturing oil and fertilizer from herring.

Lloyd and his five sisters attended school at Kake and Juneau. He was a member of the Juneau High School basketball team, played on the De Molay team and served as an official and judge for the annual Gold Medal Tournament. Most of Lloyd's life work was involved with the sea. He worked summers with his father on various boats towing logs, tending fish traps and general freighting. In January 1931, he worked as a deckhand on the ESTEBETH, the mail boat that ran between Juneau and Sitka and other boats. When his father died, in April 1932, he worked various jobs for the Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company to support his mother and sisters. In 1939 he purchased the M.V. FORESTER, a former cannery tender, and did towing, freighting, and charter work. Later, Bayers became captain of the fish packer, PELICAN. In 1941, he joined the U.S. Army Transport Service and commanded various Army small vessels, mostly in Southeast Alaska waters. After the war, Capt. Bayers went to work for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Resources Division as master of the vessel, WATRES (formerly the ELISHA P. FERRY) transporting survey personnel in Southeast Alaska. He retired from this position in 1967 because of poor health and died of heart attack Mar. 5, 1968.

Captain Bayers was well known in Juneau, a local activist who often represented the underdog position. He opposed water meters for Juneau, the Alaska ferry system (as it was organized) urban renewal and the organization of borough Government. For many years the City Cafe in Juneau, known as the unofficial city council, served as a center for discussions on local topics and controversy and Bayers was a major participant. The source of his nickname is uncertain however it has been attributed to his involvement in controversies and alternatively to his habit of kinking the edges of playing cards. [Information from Robert DeArmond.]