2ND OBIT

Osceola pioneer known for fiddle playing, cow whips dies

By Sylvia L. Oliande News-Gazette Staff Writer

Ned Hugh "Buddy" Bass, a seventh- generation Florida cracker known around the county for his fiddle playing and for his famous handmade cow whips, died at his home on Sept. 26 after a brief illness. He was 78.

Family members describe Bass as a man who was passionate about reading and exploring nature, who saw most family and community social gatherings from behind his fiddle and who took pride in the heritage of the community as part of a pioneering Kissimmee family. "He was a good man, a good father," son H. Quinton Bass of Kissimmee said of how he believes his father would want to be remembered, "a man that provided for his family, worked hard all his life and was proud of his work."

Like many people of his generation who had little but the radio to occupy them during their leisure time, Buddy Bass started playing the fiddle at 4 years old. He formed a band when he was about 8 or 9 with his late brother Walter Van Bass, named the Heart H Boys, after the familyís cattle brand. The band was invited to play at the Grand Ole Opry with Roy Acuff when Buddy was about 14, and learned to play the original version of the "Orange Blossom Special" from Vassar Clements. Their recordings are currently preserved in the Library of Congress. Quinton said after the appearance in Tennessee, Buddy was encouraged to make music a career. But Buddyís mother, Coralee Wheeler Bass, intervened and told her sons to wait until after the boys got out of high school. By that time, though, the war had broken out and Bass had enlisted in the Navy, serving on Wake Island in the North Pacific, testing new sonar equipment designed to detect submarines. He pursued a career in animal husbandry instead of music after getting out of the armed forces, marrying and having children. Clint Bass and Sons Dairy was established in 1952, so named because father Clinton helped Buddy and Walter set up on Boggy Creek.

After the dairy closed, the brothers ran the Boggy Creek Campground and kept the place hopping with bluegrass music every Saturday night. Bass became a charter member of the Silver Spurs Riding Club, providing music for the clubís semi-annual rodeo, as well as family get-togethers and other social events. He also holds the record for the "Wild Cow Milkín" contest at the rodeo, where a team attempts to get a few drops of milk from a Brahman pasture cow rather than a mild-mannered dairy cow. "(It's) a fun event, which is all that the (early Silver Spurs) rodeos were," Quinton said.

Bass also used the knot tying and braiding skills he earned in the Navy to teach himself to make whips from buckskin and nylon. He continued to make them until about three years ago when his arthritis made it difficult, Quinton said. In the last 10 to 15 years of his life, Buddy Bass became engrossed in learning about the natural environment and heritage of Central Florida in general and Osceola County in particular. Buddy helped his twin sister, Mary Ida Barber Shearhart, conduct research and drew up maps of outlying areas and historical sites, including the Reedy Creek swamp, for her book "Floridaís Frontier: The Way Hit Wuz." 

The 1992 publication, written under the name Mary Ida Bass Barber, chronicled the cattle and range wars among several families from Osceola to Seminole. Quinton said his father was very interested in local history and geography, often doing interviews and talking to schools about the area. He also traveled a lot, walking and on horseback, over most of Central Florida. He said Buddy knew the area well and retained an amazing amount of information in his head, down to specific oak trees.

"Everywhere we went, he knew of the old names for the areas, what Indians were there. He knew the cracker name and the Latin name for every plant," Quinton said. ìHe was a walking encyclopedia.î Buddyís first wife and mother of his children, Christine Sharpe Bass, preceded him in death. In addition to his son and his twin sister, his wife Jackie Sofio-Bass of Kissimmee; daughters Carolyn Williams and Mariella Grogan, both of Kissimmee; and Marilyn Thomas of St. Cloud; sister Kay Frances Johnson of Debary; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren also survived Bass.