Lyster Franklin Bass

He held several jobs in sales from insurance to toys, but his longest and most cherished job was teaching and performing classical guitar. He began teaching private students at Sutherland's House of Guitars in 1969 and went on to teach at West Georgia College, Dekalb Community College, and Mercer University. He also taught on the music faculty at Atlanta Christian College and Columbus College. He later taught for many years at Maple Street Guitars in Buckhead. Lyster was still teaching a number of private students until the week before his death.

In addition, he held master classes at Southwestern at Memphis, Warren Wilson College, and the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He performed numerous recitals around Atlanta, Montgomery, Milledgeville, and Madison. In addition to classical guitar, he sang in and directed several church choirs. He was a student of the Bible and taught various Sunday School classes.

Lyster was preceded in death by his parents, Kenneth and Nina Bass; his brother, Don Bass; and his sister, Ann Bass Thompson. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Brenda Thomas Bass; daughters, Connie (Ben) Rush of Yazoo City, Mississippi, and Erica (John) Pirtle of Dunwoody; and grandchildren, Rebekah Rush and Noah (Amy) Rush. He is also survived by a number of nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life Service, with Rev. Jennifer Carey and Ben Rush officiating, will be held at Smith Funeral Home in Winder on Saturday, April 26 at 2:00 pm with burial to follow at Corinth United Methodist Church Cemetery. There will be a visitation at the funeral home from noon until 2:00 pm prior to the service.

For anyone wishing to make donations in Lyster’s memory, please consider one of the following: Corinth United Methodist Church, 689 Corinth Church Road, Winder, GA 30680; The John Ankerberg Show for the distribution of audio Bibles at 1-800-805-3030; or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at stjude.org