Former Beloved DISD Music Teacher to be Toasted and Roasted Monday, January 25, 2016 at HITT Auditorium

A former popular music teacher of multiple DISD schools, Steve Bayless, will be toasted and roasted on Monday, January 25, at Hitt Auditorium on the Methodist Campus, at a dinner event hosted by the Oak Cliff Lions Club. Bayless was the president of the service club last year.

Steve began his career as a teacher at four elementary schools where he taught beginning band. He was a newlywed, and paid per student back when he first began working at DISD.

“We made posters and recruited, and advertised his music classes at those four different schools,” his wife of fifty-five years, Marna, explained.  “He became so popular, that he was making a lot of money, so the district re-structured how they pay their part-time teachers.”

Steve also worked at Kimball High school and eventually Dallas Baptist University, where he held multiple jobs in the music department.

His career led him into banking, including Town North National Bank, where bank president Fred Ferguson was known to love show business.

“It was a joke at the bank that he would hire tellers at the bank that could sing or dance,” Marna says. “But they hit the jackpot with Steve, cause he could play a number of instruments and direct the band.”

Steve’s official title was VP of Marketing, and he was introduced to the Oak Cliff Lions Club by the bank president. Steve was asked to join the club and for years he would help produce the annual Oak Cliff Lions Club Extravaganza at the Bronco Bowl, a night full of music, dancing, entertainment and skits that raised money for local charities.

Steve, a graduate of Adamson High, met wife Marna, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School (and a member of the school’s first graduating class in 1958) when they were both music students at North Texas. A North Texas band trip to tiny Alice, Texas, gave them time to get to know one-another and that’s where they met Jack Rumbley, the band director of the only high school in town.  

The rest is history: Steve and Marna went steady, then married in July of 1961, when she was a junior and he was a senior at the University. Jack married Rose-Mary, who taught at Dallas Baptist at the same time Steve was there.

Rose-Mary Rumbley, a former PE teacher at Bishop Dunne Catholic School in Oak Cliff, says she feels honored to be the Master of Ceremonies for the Oak Cliff Lions Club roast because Steve is such a good friend. Hilarious stories from their days growing up in Oak Cliff and teaching throughout the area will be a highlight Monday night.

Steve attended high schools in Sherman and Denison and graduated from Adamson, while there the band director decided that it would be good training for Steve to take the class while he, the teacher, took a break in the teacher’s lounge.

The parents of four grown boys, Steve and Marna attend First Presbyterian in Duncanville, and have been Oak Cliff residents for over 50 years. Their boys attended Skyline and Carter—where Jack Rumbley was the high school band director.

Rose-Mary Rumbley used to go read books at local public libraries and take along one of the Bayless boys to assist her. She is like part of the family, Marna says.

The Oak Cliff Lions Club boasts over 150 members including many elected officials: Dallas County Treasurer Pauline Medrano, Dallas County Commissioner Dr. Elba Garcia and Justice of the Peace Judge Juan Jasso are all active members of the service club.

Tickets for the “Toast and Roast of Steve Bayless” are available. Dinner tickets for the Roast are $25 each. Contact any Oak Cliff Lion to buy one or call 214-943-9725 for more information or President Lion Carol Donovan: 214-213-4575.

 Checks can be mailed to:

Oak Cliff Lions Club 
P.O. Box 4445
Dallas, Texas 75208
lion@oakclifflions.org

All profits from the event go to the Oak Cliff Lions Club’s College Scholarship Fund.

The Oak Cliff Lions meet every Wednesday at noon at Weiss Auditorium. Future speakers include:

January 27 – Dallas Parks Department, Hike and Bike Trails Update

On Saturday, February 6, the Oak Cliff Lions are hosting a Farmer's Market. Booth space is still available. Contact John McCall Junior at john@attorneymccall.com for more information. The Lions plan to make this a monthly event, to help bring healthy, fresh food to the neighborhood and provide a fun place for local vendors to sell their wares.

Other non-profit charitable organizations supported by the Oak Cliff Lions Club including: