Jason Chandler, 44, Selby Minner’s adoptive grandson, was among the dozens of family, friends and fans who attended a celebration of life ceremony held Sunday for the renowned Blues musician who died tragically on June 10.

The celebration took place on the grounds of the Honey Springs Battlefield historic site, which sits at the top of a hill cattycorner to an acreage of land where sits the Oklahoma Blues Museum, the Down Home Blues Club, the Blues Hall of Fame and two out-door stages where for 33 years the widely popular Dusk ‘Til Dawn Blues Festival has been held every Labor Day Weekend.

The 35th festival is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 30 – Sept. 1. A Board of Directors was scheduled to meet this week to discuss the future of the Blues in Rentiesville.

In addition to the museum and the club, the building served as the home for Selby and her late husband, Blues great D.C. Minner.

Together they built the labyrinth of buildings, which became their permanent home in 1988.

And together they built the Dusk ‘Til Dawn Festival in 1991, where many of the musician’s friends from their years on the road came to perform.

And they will be buried together at the Honey Springs Cemetery.

Jason grew up in Rentiesville, but left when his mother moved to Muskogee.

His father is D.C. Minner’s son, Ray Hays.

He said Selby has always treated him like a grandson.

“My happiest memories as a kid were at the festival,” he said, estimating that through the years he has attended 20 of the events.

He says he didn’t inherit the family’s musical talents. He is executive chef for the University of Central Oklahoma and lives in Yukon.

Also in attendance at the celebration of life was Selby’s sister, Hilary Conley, who lives in East Providence, Rhode Island.

She learned about her sister’s death on the internet.

There is another sister in the family, Jena Guenther, who lives in Burlington, Vermont.

Although Hilary isn’t directly involved in the festival, she says she may serve in some capacity in the future.

Right now, she is just trying to work through the tragedy that has caught so many people off guard.

“As far as the festival is concerned, at this point, we are planning on moving forward,” she said.

Shelly Zaikis sits on the Board of Directors of the Friends of Rentiesville Blues, an umbrette organization for the festival and museum and Blues Hall of Fame.

She said the Board planned to meet this week, but for the moment “the future is in abeyance.”

She said Sunday’s event was just a gathering, nothing formal.

“We’re just gathering with whoever could come up here. We’re just doing a little music, acoustically, and maybe just a little singing and things like that,” she said.

“It’s mostly commiserating and connecting with people that we’re so used to singing with on Sundays at the jam and everything. And it’s nice that everybody has come out,” she said.

She said probably things are going to have to be settled legally, as far as the property and possessions go.

“Probably our first stop will be to find that out,” she said.

She said Selby has 342 books of notes.

“There might be something in there on the property,” she said.

She said as far as being able to put on the festival, “there’s enough support for people to organize it and everything. She’s got instructions and what to do and everything, down to dotting the I and crossing the T.”

But as far as the ground?

“It’s going to be hard to find someone who is as passionate about it as she was. Well, she knew everything. Yeah. She knew. And, you know, the thing is, we have the pieces. Someone knows this, someone else knows that. Someone knows this person. Someone knows that person, “so we just have to gather together, but we really can’t do anything right now.”

Shelly was among the numerous people there who at one time or another was a student of Selby’s.

“I am a self- taught musician, but also taught by Selby too, some really good musical theories and things like that. I played with her on Thursdays for classes she used to have at the library until she got a grant and then we moved to the club.

She was with an allfemale group six or seven years ago called The Ya-Yas.

“Selby helped us restart the group,” she said.

A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, June 28 at 11 a.m. at Checotah Public Schools Performing Arts Center, 491 W Paul Carr, in Checotah.