Willard Tyler Sr., one of the founders of Vicksburg’s iconic Red Tops band, died on Saturday at River Region Medical Center. He was 95.

Formed in 1953, the Red Tops’ performed until 1974. Their music, which featured a mix of blues, jazz and pop, crossed racial lines as they played to integrated southern audiences across Mississippi and neighboring states.

“He played to earn money for his family,” his daughter, Diedre Tyler, said. “It was a great career. He played in the Blue Room from the first day it opened.”

Tyler’s death leaves Rufus McKay, 84, as the last living original Red Top. McKay, Tyler and the Red Tops were honored in 2008 with a Mississippi Blues Trail marker on Clay and Walnut streets.

“He was a dedicated musician, I enjoyed playing with him,” McKay said. “He did whatever he could to improve the group.”

He said Tyler set up the group’s sound equipment when it performed, and got along with everyone in the group.

“He was good to work with,” he said, “nice and quiet. He did what he could to help us.”

The group started after World War II as the Rebops and would play on Morrisey’s Showboat, a barge moored on DeSoto Island on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River where the alcohol laws were less strict, according to the Mississippi Blues Trail web site.

The group reorganized as the Red Tops and played their first show on June 20, 1953, at the Sequoia Hills Club in Bovina.

For Tyler, his musical career began as a teenager playing trumpet in his high school band.

“He knew he wanted to play music when he was little,” Deidre Tyler said. “He heard the music from the riverboats and wanted to be a musician. When he got out of high school, he took correspondence courses to prepare for jobs.”

Tyler said her father worked 3 to 4 jobs so his five children could go to school. He also worked at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station for 43 years, and she said he was the first African-American to get a job inside the station.

Tyler was remembered as a Christian family man of high principle, who emphasized the importance of an education to his children.

“He made sure that his children got an education,” said Diedre Tyler, who added that her father also raised two of his eight grandchildren.

“My parents didn’t have a car for 40 years,” she said. “They did without so we could have an education. All of us got our college degrees and all of his grandchildren got their degrees.

“He helped others through his children,” she said. “One nurse told him ‘your son (Willard Jr.) taught me chemistry in high school.’ Another nurse told him his granddaughter (Tammy Tyler) was a speech pathologist who helped her.”

Shirley Waring of the Vicksburg Blues Society said, “Mr. Tyler is an important part of Vicksburg’s musical legacy. We appreciate his career and his contributions to Vicksburg’s identity as a great blues town. The Vicksburg Blues Society sends our deepest sympathy to his family.”

Mr. Tyler was preceded in death by his wife of 48 years, Alma Tyler, his daughter, Lelia Tyler Sanders, and sons Maxwell Tyler and Willard Tyler Jr.

He was a member of Mount Heroden Baptist Church and a former church secretary.

He is survived by his wife of 24 years, S.C. Austin-Tyler, and daughters Diedre Tyler and Mrs. Wilbur Clay.

Dillion-Chisley Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.