Thomas "Tom" Bass Sr.

Thomas David Bass, Sr. (Tom), 74 of St. Cloud passed away August 1, 2020 in Jackson Hole, WY. A member of a Pioneer Osceola County family, Tom was born in Kissimmee, the son of William Bass and Georgette Parsons. Tom was a graduate of Sul Ross University in Alpine, TX. Tom was a retired rodeo announcer and loved the sport of rodeo. Tom was a Gold Card member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA). Tom was a member of Narcoossee Baptist Church.

Tom was known for his sense of humor and telling stories. He had the gift of gab and loved to make people laugh. He also loved FLorida history.

He is survived by is wife Glenda, son David, grandson Caden, brothers Bill (Sherlie), John (Rita is deceased), sisters Barbara (Bob) Wilkins and Peggy (Harold) Underwood.
Visitation for family and friends will be 5:00PM-7:00PM, Friday, August 21, 2020 at Conrad and Thompson Funeral Home, 511 Emmett Street, Kissimmee. Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic funeral services for family only will be 11:00AM on Saturday, August 22 at Narcoossee Baptist Church with Reverend David Steele officiating.
Active casketbearers will be: Wade Strayer, Frank Bartlett, Roy Bass, Johnny Bass, Sam Steele and
Joey Tootle.
Graveside service for both family and friends will be at Mount Peace Cemetery in St. Cloud at 12pm.

The following is an Orlando Sentinel article interviewing Tom from long ago that the family would like to share:
ST. CLOUD - Tom Bass, is a colorful link to Osceola County's past, a dyed-in-the-wool cracker.
Born in the Cow Capital of Florida to a horse-trading father and barrel-racing, bronc-riding mother, the St. Cloud resident is the second-oldest of Bill and Georgette Bass's five children. The family settled in Kissimmee in the late 1800s.
"My grandfather was a farmer who worked as a school janitor," Bass said. "My dad bartered for a lot of things we had. He's gather chickens, trade them for goats, swap the goats for cows, the cows for horses, and by age 19, he traded for his first car."
But it may have been Bass's mother, Georgette, whose 10-year career of barrel racing on horseback that had the most impact on her second-oldest son's life. However, Tommy was the couple's lone offspring to be infected by rodeo. Older brother Bill, and younger brother, John, steered clear of livestock-related sports. So did younger sisters Barbara and Peggy.
"I've been around the Silver Spurs Rodeo since I was in diapers, done anything and everything associated with that rodeo," Tommy Bass said. "A lot of people think I don't work because I don't have a 9-to-5 job."
Nothing could be further from the truth. Bass produces hand-made nylon bridles, sells horse feed and works as a substitute teacher.
"My last assignment was teaching etiquette to a dance class. Now that was a hoot," he said.
A jack-of-all-trades cowboy and humorist, Bass announces amateur and pro rodeos, including Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Southeastern Circuit events. His expressive vernacular informs and entertains. At last weekend's 103rd Spurs, Bass euphorically judged a bull rider's eight-second ride "good enough to make a bulldog hug a housecat!"
Said Bass, "My style is different from most. I simply try to have a conversation with my audience."
Rodeo is Bass's heritage, with Mom being a trendsetter.
Georgette Bass, Shirley Reeves, Nellie Austin and Faye Blackstone from the late 1950s to the early 1960s competed against male saddle-bronc riders.
"They were real cowgirls," Bass said.
Reeves graduated to bulls, but injuries - Mrs. Bass stopped bronc riding when a busted ride left her with a broken neck - led rodeo committees to ban women from rough stock events.
Like mother, like son.
"A bull stepped on my chest and bruised some ribs," Bass said. "Then, I broke four ribs bareback riding in New York, my right arm saddle bronc riding, cracked two teeth bull riding, injured both knees steer wrestling."
Somewhere between the paydays and bandages, Bass enhanced his education, graduating from Sul Ross State University in Texas with a degree in range animal science.
Today, the founder of Osceola County's inaugural Cracker Day and Ranch Rodeo, a daylight-to-dark event held April 3 at the Kissimmee Sports Arena, is surrounded by family that shares a passion for the sport.
Glenda Bass, 42, and son, David, 16, a St. Cloud High School junior, are National Barrel Horse Association members and 1997 NBHA champs, the first mother/sibling combination to share that honor.
"I'm very proud of my family, present and past," Bass said. Glenda Bass won $841 for placing second in last week's three-day Spurs rodeo, her largest single-run barrel-racing payday of her career.
Bass, with simple construction of a sentence, has a gift for visual imagery.
"The smell of grass, creosote seeping from telephone poles and black shoe polish make me think of 1957 and baseball when I was a boy," he said.
Baseball aside - and he was a decent player - Tommy Bass was part of the Spurs' rodeo at age 7, riding calves as part of the performance's pre-rodeo entertainment.
"They paid us $1, so I made $3 every time the Spurs came to town," he said. The money bought cheeseburgers at Hunt Brothers, a downtown drug store and lunch counter, comic books from Tress' Newsstand and tickets to matinees at the Arcade Theater.
Bass turned to arena clowning at age 12, first working the Pioneer Day Rodeo in Deer Park. "I went with my dad who went to buy pigs after the greased-pig competitions," he said. Bass bought steers and bulls at the youth rodeo "until I got out of high school. I don't remember getting paid, but I was fed well."
Getting braver with age, Bass graduated from riding yearlings at the Spurs to his first professional bull riding in 1963. "I was 17. My first Florida Junior Rodeo Association was in Wauchula. I won bull riding."
After trips to Fort Myers, Fort Pierce, Cocoa, Okeechobee and back to Kissimmee, Bass was not bucked off at any of six rodeos and qualified for the state finals in Moore Haven, where he placed third in bull and bareback riding. "Roy Platt and I teamed up to win at wild cow milking, too," he said. A year later, Bass was the FJRA's sportsmanship champion.
The transition from FJRA steers to the "big bulls" prowling the professional circuit was an eye-opener.
"Vernon Henderson and I went off to some independent rodeos, and they ran the big ones in on us," Bass said. "My batting average went into a big slump."
Bass didn't stop at riding bulls and broncs.
"I guess I've competed in every rodeo event except steer roping," he said. In high school, Bass even played a scrub board for an award-winning Florida Future Farmers of America stage band.
Bass got into announcing by accident when another announcer failed to show up for a 1966 event in Pierson. "I got $100 but didn't do it again until 1975," he said.
Bass, perhaps influenced by economics, dropped out of the sport from 1978-85 to sell insurance. He moved from Kissimmee to Monticello, where he met his wife. The Basses eventually moved to Bunnell, where Bass increased his activity as an announcer. He returned to St. Cloud in 1994.
"I came back to compete in steer wrestling on my 40th birthday in 1985," he said. "Even won fourth-place money in Eclectic, Ala." Two years later, Bass was back in the arena bulldogging steers in Brighton, where he took home a second-place payday of $380.
"It don't take much to make me happy," he said.
Some of the things that make Bass happiest these days are his son's grade-point average (3.83), his wife's involvement with horse shows and barrel racing and his expanding job as a rodeo announcer.
He counts last February's work with veteran announcer Clem McSpadden among his fondest memories.
Aboard his favorite horse, Boy's Night Out, a rhone-and-white paint, Bass became the first announcer in Florida to work a rodeo on horseback from inside the arena.


The Bass family is being cared for by CONRAD & THOMPSON FUNERAL HOME, 511 EMMETT STREET, KISSIMMEE, FLORIDA 34741 (407)847-3188

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