Frank Erdos

Frank Erdos was a bluegrass musician from Seymour, Missouri, who died at age 44 in a Mansfield hospital following a lengthy illness. Blind since age three due to eye tumors and radiation treatments, Erdos played banjo and guitar in several bluegrass bands, most notably Homegrown, which formed in 1975 when friends in Marshfield needed a banjo player. A Connecticut native who moved to the Ozarks in the 1970s, Erdos was also skilled in auto mechanics and woodworking, making custom cabinetry and re-roofing his house despite his blindness, using power tools with what he described as "powerful respect." In a 1983 interview with News-Leader columnist Mike O'Brien, he emphasized wanting to contribute something constructive rather than be seen as "some sort of Superman." Erdos was survived by his wife Nancy (later Nancy Cardwell) and daughter Erin Faith.

In the newsletter

• No. 2 January-March 1995