Shawn Stroope

Shawn Michael Stroope—consummate musician, high-speed wit, faithful husband, son, brother, friend, and churchman—passed from this age and into the glory of the children of God on November 29, 2024. He died at home in Stonewall, LA—at “Flatwound Ranch” as he jokingly called it—with his beloved wife, Sarah, by his side. He was 50 years old.

Stroope was born to Ronald and Anna Jean Stroope at Schumpert Hospital in Shreveport, LA on January 10, 1974. Along with treasured kid-brother, Chris, he grew up in Sunset Acres, a neighborhood to which he retained a deep loyalty, and attended the elementary school across the street from their house. Shawn later attended Caddo Middle Magnet and Evangel Christian Academy. While at Evangel, he began playing at “Youthquake,” a city-wide weekly worship night at First Assembly of God. From there, Shawn’s reputation as a bass-playing prodigy began to spread across the Ark-La-Tex. For the rest of his life, seldom a week went by when Shawn wasn’t helping to lead a gathering of Christians in worship.

In 1997, Stroope moved to Nashville with his guitar-playing friend, Gregg Scott. There they quickly formed new friendships and met many of their favorite artists. Shawn soon found work on the set of a television show and booked a tour with singer-songwriter Mancy A’lan Kane in support of Sixpence None the Richer. But his time as a Nashville-based musician was almost immediately cut short by a cancer diagnosis. At 25 years old, Stroope was forced to suddenly move back home. It was while undergoing chemo-therapy, and having lost all his hair, that he met Sarah at a church singles event. They were married a few years later, on October 11, 2004, in Central Park, New York. Just two months ago, Shawn and Sarah celebrated their 20th anniversary.

During the years of his courtship with Sarah, Shawn joined and recorded albums with two Shreveport-based bands, Jolly Napier and The Critics, both of which were fronted by new friend, Myles Roberts. In The Critics, Shawn teamed up with his buddy Gregg Scott and became close friends with drummer, Daniel Nelson, who would later officiate Stroope’s wedding. The Critics would remain Shawn’s immediate musical family for the next 20 years, though his playing took him far beyond their band. In 2011, with the help of friend and engineer, Steve Sullivan, Shawn and Myles founded Foxtrot Studio in downtown Shreveport, with Shawn leading as Executive Producer and session bassist.

Across the second half of his life, Stroope came to be regarded as arguably the best bass player Shreveport has ever produced. Though he played as far away as the Philippines and in venues as storied as the Grand Ole Opry, on the lesser-known stages of his hometown, in thousands of gigs and worship services, with a perfectionist’s conscience and a master’s conviction, Stroope routinely executed exquisitely timed note choices, choices it seemed only he could make. And though Stroope recorded or performed with the likes of Brady and Brian Blade, Dave Matthews, James Burton, Daniel Lanois, Jakob Dylan, Leigh Nash, Charlie Sexton, Buddy Miller, Darrell Evans, Anders Osborn, Neil McCoy, Steve Lukather, and Percy Sledge, Shawn’s richest legacy lies in his friendly mentoring of so many local musicians and songwriters, particularly of younger generations, who continue to look to him as an oracle of taste and tone. As one such musician put it just this week, “Stroope is the reason we all sound the way we sound.”

In the last several years of his life, Shawn lived and worked in “the valley of the shadow of death.” And yet, he faced his trials with an unwavering faith and characteristic humor. After carefully nursing his father—day after day—through the illnesses that would eventually end his life, Shawn himself was diagnosed with cancer for the second time in 25 years. Over his final two-year fight with the disease, even while traveling weekly to and from MD Anderson in Houston, Shawn continued to gig and lead worship with his friends, more often than seemed possible, always with joy and without complaint. As easily as he made jokes about “Billy Reuben,” Shawn spoke with a matter-of-fact confidence in the sovereignty of God. He did not view his cancer as outside the realm of God’s providence or off-limits for comedy. Shawn’s faith, like his style and his playing, was profoundly mature and utterly without pretense.

Shawn is preceded in death by his father, Ronald Stroope. He is survived by his wife, Sarah Elizabeth Latham Stroope; his mother, Anna Jean Stroope; his brother, Chris Stroope and wife Tiffany; his sister-in-law, Jessica Lapsley and her husband Brian; and his nieces and nephews, whom he affectionately referred to as his “borrowed children,” including Peyton Stroope and son Kai, Caitlyn Free and husband Micah, along with their children Brooklyn, Blakely, and Beaux, as well as Parker Stroope, Elijah Lapsley, Evie Lapsley, Bryant Torrez , Austin Guenard, Lakelea Vincent, and Eastyn Vincent.

Honorary pallbearers include Peyton Stroope, Parker Stroope, Brian Lapsley, Elijah Lapsley, Micah Free, Myles Roberts, Daniel Nelson, Gregg Scott, Trevious Mack, Robert Allen Mackey III, Steve Sullivan, Matt Valentine, Keith Horton, Chris Morgan, Jason Griffin, Brady Blade, Brian Blade, and Jeremy Hayes.

Sarah would like to extend a special “thank you” to all the doctors and nurses who supported her and Shawn throughout his illness, particularly those at the Willis Knighton Cancer Center, MD Anderson, and Lifepath Hospice. She also wishes to express her gratitude to Pilots for Patients for making the trips to Houston more manageable and to the Recording Academy for financial assistance. Finally, she would like to thank the community of musicians who have expressed their love and shared their stories about Shawn: “It has made this time more bearable. He loved you all so much. Play a song whenever you think of him.”