Jacob Onsby Quesenberry, of Pleasant Valley’s MacRae Brothers, died of heart failure in the early afternoon of Tuesday July 3, 2007 at Veterans Administration Health Care System hospital in Palo Alto, California.

Jake was born in Salt Lick, Virginia on April 15, 1930. At 15 years old Jake ’snuck’ into the Army, which sent him to California in 1950, where he then met Janet Pelle. Their marriage lasted until her passing over 50 years later, producing four daughters in the meantime.

Jake’s lifetime passion was bluegrass music. He learned mandolin, guitar and singing at a very early age from his family and, after moving out west, quickly became an unusually charismatic front-man l for several San Francisco Bay Area country and bluegrass bands. He co-founded the California Bluegrass Association in 1974 with his lifelong best friend Carl Pagter, which organization became the world’s largest of its kind. That organization later awarded him a coveted honorary lifetime membership. ‘Criminally’ underrecorded, Jake did make three well received CDs containing many of his original songs in the late 1990’s-early 2000’s as half of the old-time country ‘brother duet’ act The MacRae Brothers, who also performed for the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2001.

In 2004 he was honored by the CBA as a “California Bluegrass Pioneer”, and in that same year Kentucky’s Governor commissioned Jake as an honorary Kentucky Colonel, the highest honor awarded by the Commonwealth. In 2006 Jake was recognized in an official proclamation from The City of Morgan Hill, California, the same year he was asked to be the subject of the prestigious International Bluegrass Music Museum Video Oral History Project on “Bluegrass Masters”. That film debuted in 2007 during the IBMM’s River of Music Party, at which Jake was invited to perform, which he did just days before his passing.

Jake’s skill and passion for the music was widely regarded, but was nearly eclipsed by his incredibly warm, friendly, humorous and make-you-feel-good personality. Universally well-loved by the entire bluegrass community and beyond, Jake will truly be sorely missed.

Jake is survived by a sister Christine, his four daughters Susan, Diane, Annie and Judy, eight grandchildren and as many great grandchildren, as well as various siblings and cousins. The above referenced videography can be viewed at the IBMM headquarters in Owensboro, Kentucky, and his recordings are available at PleasantValleyMusic.com. Funeral services will be held July 9 at the South Valley Community Church in Gilroy, CA, and a ‘bluegrass picking party memorial’ will be held at his request at the San Martin Country Park, 13865 Monterey Hwy, San Martin, CA at a later date. Jake’s self produced “Brown Barn Festival” will be continued in his honor by his family at the San Martin Country Park on September 8-9, 2007.