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Jan. 4, 1926 – Aug. 11, 2015

LELAND — Services for Eddie Cusic Jr., 89, of Leland, who died Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015, at the Delta Regional Medical Center, will be 11 a.m. Saturday at the Leland High School with the Rev. Tracy Cusic officiating.

Burial will follow at the Greenlawn Memorial Gardens in Greenville under the direction of Dillon Funeral Home in Leland.

Visitation will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Friday at St. Peter Baptist Church in Leland and from 10 a.m. until service time Saturday at the school.

Mr. Cusic was born Jan. 4, 1926, in Wilmot, the son of Eddie Cusic Sr. and Lillie Carroll.

Eddie accepted Christ at a young age. He retired from the Department of Agriculture at Stoneville after 20 years. His love for music started as a teenager. He was a self-taught blues musician, that loved to tell his story with a song and a guitar. He created a band called “The Rhythm Aces.”

Eddie could be heard making music across the Mississippi Delta. After retirement, he was a traveling advocate for the Delta blues across the lower 48 states and Canada. Through his travels, Eddie performed at the World Trade Center in New York City, The Symphony Space in Harlem, The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C., the King Biscuit Blues Festivals in Helena Ark., Delta Blues and Heritage Festival (sponsored by Mississippi Action for Community Education) in Greenville, the Highway 61 Blues Festival in Leland, the Clarksdale Blues Festival, the Hollandale Blues Festivals, Port Angeles Washington Blues Festival, Portland Oregon Blues Festival and the Chicago Blues Festival, to name a few.

Eddie was devoted to music in the schools and taught others to make blues a living art. Other notables include a showcase in the Highway 61 Blues Museum and a musician’s brick on the sidewalk of Walnut Street in Greenville. He was also pictured on the Greater Delta 1999 telephone directory and a picture on the Blues Trail history marker in a Leland neighborhood.

Eddie won the Mississippi Musical Award presented by the governor in 1998. He received the lifetime achievement award in 2004 from the Greenville Arts Council. He was extremely proud of the opportunity to tour the White House while performing in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Cusic was preceded in death by his parents and three siblings, Dorothy Dunbar, Willie Holmes and John Henry Cusic.

Survivors include a devoted wife of 50 years, Lucinda Cusic; three sons, Eddie Cusic III and wife, Mable, of Sacramento, Calif., Dale Henry Cusic and wife, Rosalund, of Greenville, and the Rev. Tracy Cusic and wife, Betty Jean, of Natchez; one daughter, Eddie Mae Willis and husband, Bobby, of Sacramento; four siblings, William Cusic and wife, Deborah, Gladys Lewis, Lillie Bell Gilmore and husband, Amos, of Greenville, and Viola Butler and husband, Eddie, of Highland, Calif.; 13 grandchildren, Jasmine Cusic, Eddie Jamal Cusic, Quontel Willis, Brandon Willis, Delnica Mason, Natasha Mason, Dominique Coburn, Deja Chatman, Jeremiah Chatman, Tyrin McDuffie, Tracy Cusic Jr., Tralyn Cusic and Tracen Cusic; and three great-grandchildren.