Affectionately nicknamed "Bear," the 54-year-old bluesman died of a heart attack Thursday.
R&B guitarist and singer Pat McJimsey, who played gigs, benefits and school assemblies all over Wichita for more than 35 years, died Thursday of a heart attack at his home. He was 54.
"We were friends for a long time," said John Salem, longtime KAKE-TV sales manager who played keyboards with Mr. McJimsey in the 1980s and 1990s and still appeared as a guest with him on occasion.
"We made a lot of good music together. He will be greatly missed."
" Pat was an extraordinary blues guitarist and vocalist," added Bill Hawks, a bass player who performed with him in the 1970s and 1980s. "He had a signature voice and a signature style of playing. He was masterful."
"What a tragic loss," said Drake Macy, guitarist with Mr. McJimsey in the band 4 Brothers. "I played with him just last Saturday and he looked fine. It shows how quickly things can come to a halt."
George Patrick McJimsey was born March 21, 1950, in Wichita. Nicknamed "Bear" because of his size and bushy beard, he headed R&B bands since the age of 17 when he formed the Velvet Honey in his mother's garage.
The Pat McJimsey Band, a six-member combo, packed audiences into Wichita's then-hot-spot, My Brother's Place, four nights a week for six years running.
That band also recorded the album "I Dig Girls" in 1984 at Colorado's famed Caribou Ranch. Recently remastered for CD, the album became available only a month ago.
While most of Mr. McJimsey's later career was in Wichita, he toured with such performers as John Manning, Mike Finnegan and Jerry Wood, Leon Russell and Freddy King. He was also an opening act for Canned Heat and Spyro Gyra.
Mr. McJimsey was considered a regional celebrity but many of his fellow musicians said he had the talent to be a national figure.
"But the irony of his career is that he loved this area and his music," Hawks said. "Being a celebrity was never his concern."
His friends said he was a success on his own terms.
"Success is generally looked at as financial," said Jim Keefer, a close friend and musician. "But in the arts, it's what you create and the atmosphere around you. By that measure, Pat was a great success."
Mr. McJimsey also took jazz and improvisation to children in Wichita schools.
"The kids were used to just regular songs," Salem said. "Pat would come in and make music, and they would just connect."
Recently, Mr. McJimsey became interested in children with special needs. He had applied to become a paraprofessional to bring music to them, Keefer said.
"He was the consummate musician," Hawks said. "But he was also a friend to everyone he met. He was the most loving and decent, big bear of a man."
Mr. McJimsey is survived by his wife, Barbara, his children Ben and Lexie, and brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Donna McJimsey of Shell Knob, Mo.
Services will be at 4 p.m. Sunday at Unity Church of Wichita, 2160 N. Oliver. A memorial has been established with the Musicians Relief Fund and may be sent through the Wichita Blues Society.
