Preceeded in death by sister Anna Boyd, brother Herman Burns, brother Charles Burns and sister Jean Smith.
Survived by a loving wife Ruth (Sakkers) Burns, daughter Brenda Burns, son Scott Horsting and wife Candi, son Matt Burns and wife Stacy, and daughter Angela Burns; grandchildren Stephen, Austin, Tiffany, Torri, Titus and Tara; several nieces and nephews.
After a long season of health decline, he passed peacefully on Friday afternoon, 4/19 in the comfort of friends & caregivers.
Clyde lived a life full of passion for Jesus and gospel music. He began playing guitar while singing with his family at New Haven Baptist Church in Norwood, Ohio, where his father, Earl Burns, was the first pastor and a founding member.
He later joined The Brown Brothers, The Representatives, The Superiors, The Mariner’s Quartet and finally the Rhythm Masters. While singing with the Rhythm Masters, he had the opportunity to sing at the Taft Auditorium in Cincinnati, Ohio with big group names such as The Oak Ridge Boys, The Downing, The Spears, The Rambos, The Happy Goodmans, The Crownsman, The Sego Brothers & Naomi, The Blackwood Brothers, The Statesman Quartet and The Stamps Quartet.
He was a solo singing-evangelist for many years, while traveling in his blue dodge dart. After the kids grew older, they started singing as a family. The Clyde Burns family continued travelling all over the U.S. in many various contraptions, such as a brown Dodge conversion Maxi-van and a silver GM 4104 bus. After the youngest went away to college, Clyde continued touring occasionally as a soloist but began getting more involved in promoting gospel concerts and local church ministry.
As he aged, his health issues continued to multiply. In 2002, he had his first heart attack and his heart condition continued to worsen until 2010 when he required a pacemaker. Since then, a diagnosis of diabetes and more recently a hospitalization in ICU, from which he was unable to recover enough to return home. It was then that he came under the wonderful care of the nurses and staff at Life Care Center.
Even in “prison,” as he called it many times-he usually always had a smile, a prayer, an encouraging word or a funny joke. Everyone there knew him. Most everyone there loved him. We are thankful for God’s providence in allowing him to reside his final days at Life Care. We are thankful for those who visited him and those who cared for him. We will never be able to repay our gratitude for your blessing and love on our dad and family. He will be missed by many, but we rejoice with hope knowing he is in heaven with His Savior and we will see him again!
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