UPDATE: Easterling, beloved music store owner, musician, remembered by many dies at 88 – Mississippi’s Best Community Newspaper

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Music store owner and musician James Gordon Easterling Sr., known to many as “Jim”, died late Saturday of a rare form of cancer. he was 88 years old. (Submitted)

Jim Easterling playing keyboards at a music store in Vidalia, Louisiana. (Submitted)

Easterling Music Company storefront in Vidalia, Louisiana. (Submitted)

Vidalia, Louisiana — The longtime owner of the Easterling Music Company in Vidalia, a beloved by many in the music industry and throughout Miss Lu, passed away late Saturday.

James Gordon Easterling Sr., 88, was diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma, according to his son Greg Easterling. This business has been serving the Miss Lu music community for over 50 years, starting in 1966.

In addition to being a business owner, Jim was also a talented musician with a wealth of knowledge about many things. He was playing music while working at the store until early April, when he could no longer do that.

His granddaughter, Erin Gaspard Easterling, said Easterling Music captured a video of Jim Easterling playing the final song on her favorite guitar.

“At the time, he said that if you sing when you’re weak, you’ll be considered a weak person, and then he won’t sing anymore,” she said.

Throughout his life, he encountered famous artists such as Marty Robbins and Jerry Lee Lewis, who played at the nearby club The Windmill.

Greg said his father inspired him to write songs for Robbins after Jim stumbled upon Robbins’ guitarist while he was playing in Natchez.

“The phone rang one day, and the person on the phone said, ‘Hi, this is Marty Robbins… I want you to write a song for me,'” said Greg. “My father questioned him at first, but he thought it was a prank. He ended up writing two hit songs for himself.”

According to Greg, one track, ‘Hello Daily News’, which was played on Johnny Cash’s show, and ‘You Don’t Really Know’, were the best songs on the album.

“Before Marty passed away, he was going to do two more songs, and I just can’t remember what those two songs were,” Gregg said. “He’s probably asking Marty about those songs now.”

Greg said Jim Easterling picked up his first instrument, a mandolin, at age 13, but “couldn’t carry a bucket of music.” Everything else he learned from then on was self-taught.

Author Greg Isles said he and many other local musicians have been encouraged and helped many times beyond the retailer-customer relationship typical of Easterling.

“He did a lot for myself and Bobby Hensley, who formed a band called Frankly Scarlett,” Isles said. “But Jim went above and beyond. I was also well aware of serious corruption.

“It was Jim Easterling who set up that fateful lunch at the Eora Hotel and introduced me to Stanley Nelson. That encounter ultimately inspired me to write the Natchez Burning trilogy. Without Jim Easterling, it’s safe to say that there would have been three Pen Cage novels, not seven, or, if there were, the Silver Dollar Murders. I wouldn’t have dealt with such a dark and important subject.”

Isles added that he has just completed Penn Cage’s seventh novel, which is due for publication in May 2024. Isles said he has “Will Rogers” wisdom about Mr. Easterling, but will gently offer corrective advice in a way that people will accept. He also cared a lot about his customers, often taking them out to lunch, talking deeply about their lives, hopes and dreams, and offering sound advice.

“I think he really liked it,” said Amanda Easterling Stark, one of Jim Easterling’s granddaughters. Although she grew up in Hattiesburg, she has many memories of her childhood spent at her grandfather’s music store in Vidalia.

“We (the grandchildren) were kind of camping there[in his shop]and playing with musical instruments while they worked,” she said.

To his grandchildren, Jim Easterling was called “The Main Man”, a nickname coined by his eldest grandson, Stark’s eldest brother, Jay.

She further added that the “main man” could play almost any instrument “put in front of him”.

“There is a huge love for music in our family, whether you can play an instrument or not, and I’m sure it resonated with the main man,” Stark said.

“If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be in music,” Erin added. “Since third grade, I was dropped off the bus to go to nursery school here and I used to see him every day. It was a good memory. …That’s how I ended up with music. I was saturated with it.” was doing.”

Erin started playing the flute and played the first chair. Her sister Angela played her first chair on the saxophone.

Jim Easterling was in a band called the “Mississippians,” which for more than 40 years, with various members coming and going, played local venues and festivals across the South, Gregg said. The family will invite those who knew and played with Jim Easterling to perform at his funeral on Friday at Colonial Funeral Home in Columbia, Mississippi.

“With all that talent, we should give him a fair pass,” Gregg said.

Jim Easterling grew up in Morgantown, a small community in the Mississippi suburb of Columbia, before moving to Natchez to work for the International Paper and later opening a music store.

Stark said Easterling enjoyed fishing outdoors and taking long walks along rivers, over cliffs and in the woods when he wasn’t at the store.

Greg added that Jim Easterling loved to read and probably would have become a history professor if he hadn’t played music.

Easterling Music is still run by Jim Easterling’s wives Lelda and Greg.

According to Starks, Jim and Lelda have been married for 70 years and have been together since high school.

Easterling has another son, James Gordon Easterling Jr. He has two sisters, Gene Fortenberry and Joan Gartman. Brother Jeff Easterling. 6 grandchildren. He has 14 great-grandchildren and his 5 great-grandchildren, of whom 2 are due.

A visitation will be held Thursday, June 8, from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Colonial Funeral Home in Columbia, followed by a funeral service at 11:00 am on Friday, presided over by Reverend Corey Odom.