Bishop Mayfield performs on stage in 2020.

Local blues singer Bishop Mayfield left behind a legacy of music and love when he died July 1, at age 75.

For years, congestive heart failure wore his body down, said close friend and bandmate Dave Storie, but Mayfield’s spirit lasted to the end. Even when he had to sit out winter rehearsals for their group — the Bishop Mayfield & Friends Band — he joined the band through the summer performances for as long as he could.

“He wanted to be there, no matter how small — we played some closets and some stadiums but it didn’t matter, you got the same Bish either way,” said Storie.

Mayfield was kind and professional as a vocalist, he said, but there was something more that ignited his fellow performers and his audiences.

“Sometimes when we were on stage, I would look at what he was seeing, right in his eyesight, and the connection and the love coming back to him, it was just overwhelming,” Storie said.

Mayfield and Storie met 40 years ago in Humboldt County, California, when they were in other bands but “kept ending up on the same bill,” he said. As they shared stages, they formed a connection. In 2012, Storie learned his old friend was also living in the Rogue Valley. When they reconnected, the pair formed a deep bond — as bandmates and more.

“I’ve grown a lot as a musician and a human just by being around him,” he said.

For the last year of his life, as he lost his mobility and was confined to a wheelchair, his wife, Suzette Mayfield, cared for him even as she worked long hours. Without hesitation, she said, she would do it all over again. She remembered with gratitude how he tried to involve others in his care to help her.

“He nicknamed me ‘Zette,’ and it was Bish and Zette no matter what. …There was an unconditional love between us,” she said.

Between them, the pair had a sizable clan — children Ryan Mayfield and his fiancé Rachel Herod; Maya Mayfield (partner Jonathan Rosales); Jill Jensen and her fiancé Jerry Boles; and Jesse Downs (partner Hannah Anderson). Mayfield also leaves behind 12 grandchildren and the family dog Jasper.

“Jasper, he’s really going through it. He spent every day with him. He’s constantly looking for him,” she said.

Mayfield loved creating relationships, Suzette Mayfield said. He loved games, from dominoes to cribbage and cards. He also loved a good drum circle and played both the jambai and the djun djun, she said. He was a devoted member of the referee league for children’s volleyball, basketball and baseball for over two decades.

He was also a good eater, and preferred to enjoy his favorites — black-eyed peas and ham hock, collards, fried chicken and fish — as a home-cooked dinner, she said.

Mayfield played on virtually every stage in the valley with many artists. Tributes poured onto social media after his death.

“Bishop Mayfield was lighthearted, gifted, welcoming, charismatic, respectful, bombastic and kind,” said Shawn Traub, a member of the Rogue Valley Gospel Group.

“He was a great man after God’s heart, and a talented, hard-working musician. He will be missed by many. Rest easy Bish. I will see you again in heaven brother,” wrote Amanda Bates, who performed with him.

“We met Bishop at a place in Medford. We were taking my Mom out to dinner the night before her open heart surgery and somehow we began to talk to Bishop. He told us his story, and we told him ours, and he asked my Mom if he could say a prayer for her. So in the middle of this little tiny bar area, we all bowed our heads to pray for my Mom’s surgery to go well. And it did!” wrote Karin Vaught Lewis.

Storie remembered visiting Mayfield at home four days before his death. He sensed it would be his last conversation with his friend.

“I wheeled him out to the porch, and we talked for hours about music and life. And I asked him, ‘Is there anything you want me to do for you, while you’re still here or after you’re gone?’ He was quiet for a long time. … He said, ‘You can play some music for me, that’d be alright.’

“Then as I was leaving, I was standing at his front gate and he was standing on his porch, and he looks at me and says, ‘I’m not done fighting, Dave.’ That was the last thing he said to me besides some I love yous,” he said.

On Saturday night, July 1, Storie was preparing to play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Green Show with the band he and Mayfield had shared.

“We were going to dedicate the show to Bishop, then I got a phone call from his wife, she told me they were unhooking his life support,” he said.

As his health began to falter, Suzette Mayfield said she asked Bish if his heart was right with God. He said it was. He was verbal to his final day, she said.

In the hospital, doctors said they could keep him alive with machines, but he said he had been poked and prodded enough. In the end, she said, it was his decision to accept that it was time to let go.

At 11:45 p.m. that night, he was gone. The next day, friends reacted immediately.

“There were so many phone calls,” Storie said. “There was such an outpouring. It was a beautiful day of reconnecting, really taking in what a void he’s leaving behind.”

When asked about his fondest memory with Mayfield, Storie hesitated. There were so many, he said. He pointed to opening for Gladys Knight at the Britt Festival last year.

“He had that crowd eating out of the palm of his hand the whole set. I think that was the pinnacle of my time with him, just a beautiful point. But we had moments like that in all kinds of places,” he said.

According to Mayfield’s Soundcloud page, he began to sing at 5 years old in his native state of New York. Beginning in 1966, he was performing from California to Canada. A string of stars are listed as people Mayfield “toured with, jammed with, or opened for” — including Albert Collins, B.B. King, Al Wilson, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, Tower of Power, Jr. Walker & The All-Stars, Charlie Musselwhite, Ike & Tina Turner, Sugar Pie DeSanto, John Lee Hooker, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Jose Feliciano, James Brown, Graham Central Station, Bo Diddley and Etta James.

Storie takes solace in the recorded music his friend left behind.

“I have that, and the memories,” he said.

To listen to Mayfield’s music, visit soundcloud.com/bishop-mayfield.

His family started a GoFundme for a celebration of life for Mayfield. To learn more, see www.gofundme.com/f/celebration-of-life-bishop-mayfield