Little Roy and Esley Lewis at the Little Roy & Lizzy Festival (4/30/26) – photo © Sandy Hatley
Esley Lewis, 96, brother of the Lewis Family, passed away on Friday, June 19, 2026. In his youth, he picked banjo with his male siblings. At that time, they were known as the Lewis Brothers. He played with them until he went into service. When he returned, Little Roy was picking the banjo so Esley bought an upright bass and began playing that with the band. He left the group when he married and started working for the railroad, a position he held for 50 years.
Little Roy shared a little history…
“He used to carry me around on his shoulders. He was the banjo picker before I was, but he went in the army. He had a Silvertone banjo from Sears Roebuck. He took that banjo with him to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. While he was there, a storm came up. A 2 x 4 went through the tent and tore that banjo up.
He came back to Schneider’s Music in Augusta and bought an RB-100 and told me not to play his Gibson. I didn’t even let the dust get settled. I wore it out. He played two-finger style and I was a better banjo player than he was. When he came back home, he gave me his RB-100 and he started playing bass fiddle. We went to that same music store and got an old Kay bass. We didn’t know what to do with it so we’d lay it in the bed and cover it up like a person. He played the bass fiddle for us until 1955 when he got married.”
He also related a story involving his big brother and a silver dollar.
“When Esley was 13 and [my brother] Wallace was 15, Wallace had an operation and couldn’t help on the farm. Esley had to milk the cows, feed the hogs; he had to do everything and walked to my grandma’s house two miles away to do stuff for her. On his 13th birthday, Mama gave him a silver dollar and told him not to tell nobody. A few weeks ago, he gave me that silver dollar. He had never showed it to anybody in 80 years. Nobody knew he had it, but me.”
Esley attended Little Roy and Lizzy’s festival at the Lewis Family home place in Lincolnton, GA at the end of April. Little Roy invited his big brother to join him on stage to sing a hymn together.
Another brother, Talmadge, recently passed away in March at the age of 91. A sister, Janis Lewis Phillips, and brother, Little Roy Lewis, are the only siblings that remain. Esley was preceded in death by his sisters: Miggie Lewis and Polly Lewis Copsey; brothers: Talmadge and Mosley Lewis (who died as a child).
The family will receive friends beginning on Thursday, June 25, at 1:00 p.m. at Thomas, Poteet and Son Funeral Directors, 214 Davis Road, Augusta, Georgia. The funeral service will follow at 2:00 p.m. in the chapel. Internment will follow at Hillcrest Memorial Park.
Memorial contributions may be made to:
Hepzibah Baptist Church
2527 Georgia Highway 88
Hema, GA 30815
R.I.P., Esley Lewis.
