Blues guitarist D.C. Minner toured the United States and performed with such blues and rock ’n’ roll legends as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.

But those who knew Minner said his greatest joy was sharing his music at schools and jamming at the Down Home Blues Club in his hometown of Rentiesville in northern McIntosh County.

Minner, an inductee in the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, died Tuesday. He was 73.

“He was just a fine fellow,” said Hall of Fame board member Mike Jett, who had been working on a touch-screen video program about Minner for the Hall of Fame. “I met D.C. eight or 10 years ago when my son was in high school. One of Minner’s deals was educational outreach. He encouraged young people to get involved in music, So he toured the region and gave workshops. He made music available to everyone.”

“Music has lost a great blues man today in the passing of D.C. Minner,” said Hall of Fame President Sue Harris. “All of us involved with the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame extend our sympathy to (his wife) Selby and his family, and our gratitude that D.C. left us all the gift of his music.”

Bass guitarist Earnest Carr, who goes by the stage name Bronko, said Minner was “a natural philosopher of blues and human life and music.”

“He knew music can do a lot for people and that people can do a lot for music,” Bronko said.

Bronko said music came naturally for Minner.

"I don't have any choice,” Minner said in a 2005 interview with the Phoenix. “I decided I was going to play music when I was a preschooler. I have to play. That's why I'm here."

Born Jan. 28, 1935, Minner first heard the blues in his grandmother’s corn whiskey house in Rentiesville, listening to a jukebox and live bands, according to his biography with the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.

After joining the service, he played bass guitar with Larry Johnson and the New Breeds, an Oklahoma City band that backed up Freddie King, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry.

During the late 1960s, Minner was in San Francisco where he studied guitar and met Selby.

The Minners and Blues on the Move toured for 12 years before moving to Minner’s home place in Rentiesville. They opened the Down Home Blues Club in Rentiesville in 1988. In 1991, they founded the Dusk ‘til Dawn Blues Festival.

Minner was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2003.

Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame Vice President Max Boydstun recalled the 2003 induction ceremony and concert, which included blues legend Flash Terry and Ronnie Dunn of the country duo, Brooks and Dunn. Boydstun said most people came to hear Brooks and Dunn.

“But what was cool was when at the end of the set featuring D.C. and Flash and all the cowboy country fans were standing on their chairs giving them a standing ovation,” Boydstun said.

It's never too late to pursue your passion," Minner said in 2005. "I really want people, when they're chasing their life's desires, not to think about the money, but how much they love doing it. And if you do it well enough, the money will come."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 684-2928 or cspaulding@ muskogeephoenix.com.