The New York Times has an obituary today:

Wade Mainer, a Pioneer of Bluegrass Banjo, Dies at 104
By WILLIAM GRIMES
September 15, 2011

Wade Mainer, a singer and banjo player whose clean, emphatic style and devotion to old-time mountain songs made him a pivotal figure in the transition to bluegrass music, died on Monday at his home in Flint, Mich. Mr. Mainer, who once performed at the White House for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was 104.

His death was confirmed by his son Randall.

Mr. Mainer began recording in the early 1930s with J. E. Mainer and the Mountaineers, led by his older brother, a fiddle player. He introduced a distinctive two-finger style, with the thumb moving downward and the forefinger moving upward, that contrasted with the traditional downward-moving clawhammer stroke. This style gave a modern flavor to traditional tunes and inspired younger players like Don Reno and Earl Scruggs.

In the late 1930s Mr. Mainer formed his own group, the Sons of the Mountaineers, which recorded dozens of songs on RCA Victor's Bluebird label.

"Wade brought the music forward," said Dick Spottswood, the author of "Banjo on the Mountain: Wade Mainer's First Hundred Years" (2010). "In the 1920s, the banjo stayed in the background, providing counterpoint and rhythm. He made it prominent, and laid the groundwork for bluegrass in the 1940s."

Wade Eckhart Mainer, whose middle name was spelled several ways, was born on April 21, 1907, near Weaverville, N.C. As a boy he picked up the banjos that performers would lay down during their breaks at dances and taught himself to play.

Initially he used the clawhammer technique, but he soon devised a two-finger style using finger picks. "I just picked the string and something hit my ear when I did it like that, and I said, 'That sounds a little better,' " he recalled in an interview with the musician and storyteller David Holt.

After joining his brother at a cotton mill in Concord, the two began performing for fellow workers and at local events like corn shuckings. In 1932 they began playing on the radio station WSOC in Gastonia, N.C.; after moving up to WBT in Charlotte two years later, they formed J. E. Mainer and the Mountaineers.

The group toured extensively and came to the attention of Bluebird. Wade Mainer recorded more than a dozen songs for that label with the group, including the hit "Maple on the Hill."

In 1936 he left the Mountaineers and began recording for Bluebird with Zeke Morris, another former Mountaineer. In 1937 he formed his own group, the Smilin' Rangers, which evolved into the Sons of the Mountaineers. In all, he recorded more than 150 songs for Bluebird with various groups, including the 1939 hit "Sparkling Blue Eyes."

Around that time he was invited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry, but was prevented by his contract. In 1941 the folklorist John A. Lomax included Mr. Mainer's recordings of "John Henry," "Down in the Willow Garden," "On a Cold Winter's Night (The Wreck of Number Nine)" and "Riding on That Train 45" on the RCA album "Smoky Mountain Ballads," an important recording that introduced Northern audiences to music by Mr. Mainer, Uncle Dave Macon, the Monroe Brothers, the Dixon Brothers and the Carter Family.

That year Mr. Lomax's son, Alan, and Archibald MacLeish, the librarian of Congress, arranged for the Sons of the Mountaineers to perform at the White House with Josh White and Burl Ives as part of a postdinner event titled "An Evening of American Song for American Soldiers."

Refreshments were part of the program, unfortunately for Mr. Mainer. He was standing near a swinging door in the East Room when Eleanor Roosevelt entered abruptly, causing him to spill a dish of ice cream over her dress.

"So I run my hand down in my pocket and pulled out a big old red bandana handkerchief," Mr. Mainer told Mr. Spottswood. "I was going to wipe the ice cream off of her. She said, 'No, you just forget about that.' She disappeared for a few minutes and directly she came back, she had on a different dress and everything. The concert went on and it was a very lovely evening we had down there with them at the White House."

In 1937 Mr. Mainer married Julia Mae Brown, a singer and guitarist who performed as Hillbilly Lillie. She survives him. In addition to his son Randall, of Grand Blanc, Mich., he is also survived by his sons Frank, of Mocksville, N.C., and Kelly, of Flint; a daughter, Polly Hofmeister of Rochester Hills, Mich.; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. J. E. Mainer died in 1971.

In 1953 Mr. Mainer went to work at a General Motors plant in Flint and, rededicating himself to his Christian faith, put aside the banjo. At the urging of the singer Molly O'Day, who had undergone a similar conversion, he returned to the banjo in the early 1960s and, recasting himself as a gospel singer, recorded several religious albums.

He finally made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry in July 2002, at the age of 95, performing "Maple on the Hill" and "Take Me in the Lifeboat."

(final emphasis mine -- DD)