Gaskins Switch Memorial Foundation

Robert “Bobby” David Bohannan of Berryville, Arkansas was born December 11, 1947 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Bo passed away Monday, June 14, 2021 in Rogers, Arkansas at the age of 73. 

Bo served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War and lived in Hawaii and Washington State before returning to Arkansas in the early 1970s. He loved music and came from a long line of gifted bluegrass musicians. As a teen, he played in a band called The Avengers. In the 70s, after returning to Eureka Springs, he played bass with the Eureka Springs-based band, Gaskins Switch, and opened for John Lee Hooker at the Ozark Mountain Folk Fest in May 1973. After living in Houston and Missouri for several years, he returned again to Arkansas in the 1980s. He lived in Berryville and worked at Tyson Foods for the last 30 years of his life. 

He had just purchased a new bass guitar and amp the month before he died and had planned to get together with his former band mates the weekend of June 19-20 to jam for the first time in over 40 years. Unfortunately, Bo's health did not allow for this plan to be realized. However, his time in Gaskins Switch was one of the highlights of his entire life. To honor his memory, the Gaskins Switch Memorial Foundation is being formed to provide support for aspiring young musicians in the Northwest Arkansas area, to fund research into Ozark Mountains music history and practices, and to purchase a memorial marker (to be determined) for the band that meant so much to Bo, Gaskins Switch.