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NATCHEZ — Longtime musician, guitar player and singer Jimmie Wheeler of Easy Eddie and the Partyrockers died Sunday at age 72.

A native of Woodville, Wheeler was affectionately called “MiMi” by his family and close friends.

Founded in August 1985, the Party Rockers jammed throughout the region and country for over 3,000 gigs in three decades and made over $3 million collectively. But Wheeler’s music passion began much earlier. Debbie Wheeler said her brother had played in a band throughout high school and as early as she could remember.

She would always cherish the memory of her brother smiling and playing his guitar, she said. She loved hearing him play “Brown Eyed Girl.”

“My brother could sing anything,” she said. “If he wanted to play a Conway Twitty song, he could do it.”

He was a skilled guitar player and could pick away at anything, box, electric or bass, she said.

Wheeler was also a Pentecostal preacher and many people would come from all over the region to hear him at the pulpit, she said.

“Through God, he won many souls,” she said. “He’d had an anointment on him. Everyone I know has a good story about him. He had a witty, funny personality. He could make you laugh, he could make you cry when he’d play me a song.”

His bandmate and drummer Fredrick Parker released a statement honoring Wheeler.

“Any musician that worked with Jimmie knew immediately that he was a consummate professional,” Parker said. “Jimmie was never late; he always knew his parts. He played and sang with passion, conviction and flair. His guitar solos were always ‘tasty’ like a good story. His solos had a beginning, a middle and an end.

“More than all of this, Jimmie was kind, generous, and spiritual. Jimmie had a big heart, a loving soul, and all of us who worked with him, or were entertained by him, will miss him immensely, and remember him forever.”

A GoFundMe page has been created and donations have also been sent directly to Marshall Funeral Home to assist Wheeler’s family with his burial.

Wheeler has two sons Jason and Ron, two sisters and a brother.

He joins his beloved daughter, Emmy, probably still singing and playing guitar in the next life.

Debbie Wheeler said her favorite memories are of her brother playing with his grandchildren, whom he loved dearly.

Lead singer Glen McGlothin said Wheeler was among many great musicians born out of a small part of the country.

“Heaven has got a great guitar player,” McGlothin said. “There are a bunch of our friends that left us along the way and he’ll fit right in.”

McGlothin said Wheeler was one of the reasons he joined Easy Eddie and the Partyrockers.

“I met Jimmy way back in the early 70s when he was in a band called My Generation. Gary Caldwell called me and asked if I wanted to be in a band. I’d quit doing music in 1975 and this was 10 years later. When he told me Jimmy was playing, I hadn’t thought of him in a long time. I decided I’d be glad to do it. We were going to play one weekend a month just to put our hand in it. We started out like that but before long we were playing every weekend. … It wound up being bigger than we’d ever dreamed of. We played together 30 years; It had been that long.”

McGlothin shared a memory of one gig where Wheeler became sick an hour or so before they were to go on stage and he had to play all of Wheeler’s parts.

“I told Jimmie don’t you ever get sick again,” he said.

Bassist Gary Caldwell said he remembers once when Wheeler’s electronic tuner malfunctioned and Wheeler was in a different key than the rest of the band during the introduction song at a huge gig.

Wheeler was serious about his music and there weren’t many times that he ever made a mistake, Caldwell said.

“He thought everyone else was out of tune when he was out of tune,” he said. “He was an incredible vocalist. He could sing and play anything from Jimmy Nelson to Jimmy Hendrix, doo-wop to hard rock. He was one of the most versatile musicians I’ve ever played with and easy to get along with.”

Calwell said together they played, “as far north as Chicago, as far east as Destin, Florida, as far west as San Antonio, Texas, and as far south as New Orleans.”

“He will be seriously missed,” he said.