A long-time resident of Jackson, MS, Rick Bass (Ross Frederick Bass, Jr.) died peacefully surrounded by his loving family on May 29, 2025, at Atria Memory Care in Katy, Texas, where he had resided for a year and a half to be closer to family following a stroke in February 2023.
Many of Rick’s dear Jackson-area friends and extended family kept in touch with visits and phone calls since his stroke and during a recent sudden decline. Rick enjoyed the conversations with and stimulation from these loving people. To the end, his stated goal was to work with the physical therapists, return home to Jackson, and play tennis.
Throughout Rick’s recovery, his winsome personality and stoic perseverance never faded. No one who knows him would be surprised to learn that he was a favorite of the Atria staff, many of whom called him “Dad,” taking after daughter Bonnie who regularly visited or called every day. The family wishes to thank the kind-hearted and capable staff of Atria who took such good care of Rick.
The first of three children born to Betty Jo Holcomb Bass and Ross F. Bass, M.D., Rick was born in Jackson on August 14, 1946. In his early childhood, Rick’s father’s medical training and naval duties took the young family to tiny Baldwyn, MS, where Rick learned to walk, followed by exciting New Orleans, where Rick remembered riding the St. Charles streetcar daily and learning to read with his mother in the library, and then northward to Falls Church, VA, where he started first grade and visited Washington, D.C., frequently with his parents and two year-old brother, Robert. Rick’s enduring interest in history began here. The Bass family finally settled back in familiar Jackson, a city Rick ever after fondly regarded as home. He received a good education and sports training in the Jackson Public Schools he attended: Power, Boyd, Bailey, and Murrah, Class of 1964. He moved through these youthful and delightful Buckley Drive years with a pack of friends from the neighborhood, with Little League baseball team members, and football team friends. In fact, Rick made friends for life in each stage of his maturation and eagerly participated in any and all reunions.
Inherent fortitude, humor, stamina, and resilience equipped Rick both to survive and thrive after any hardships in his life. He accumulated many memories of comical situations in which he found himself. These he recounted with self-deprecating good humor to the delight of all.
At age six, Rick contracted polio. While he recuperated in quarantine, isolated in the boys' ward of a Vicksburg sanatorium for several months, he delighted in his medical father's permitted weekly visits when he brought Rick enough decks of cards, comic books, crossword puzzles, adventure and mystery magazines to share. Ever after, Rick read a variety of genres, daily solved word and math puzzles, learned to count cards, and honed his strategic thinking abilities, all of which served him well in Tournament Bridge, football, baseball, soccer, golf, tennis, pickleball, and, more profitably, in his legal profession.
Rick attended Vanderbilt for two years where he majored in pre-med until, as he said, “I ran into organic chemistry.” He switched to a double major in English and history, accepted a baseball scholarship from Belhaven, and graduated with distinction. While a student, he worked at Person’s, a men’s clothing store, and developed a good head for both business and fashion under Mr. Person’s tutelage. He became a dapper dresser who looked made for a corner office.
After college, Rick served as an officer in the medical corps of the National Guard, an experience that funded amusing memories he liked to recount. He married fellow Belhaven graduate, Janie Shiel, in 1969, and welcomed his oldest daughter, Susan, into his life. His young family then moved to Oxford, MS, where he entered Ole Miss law school and embarked on a distinguished career.
Rick excelled in the study of law. Always admired by his peers for the keen facility of his legal mind, he became editor-in-chief of the law journal and graduated with distinction, earning his J.D. in 1973. He credited Susan and Janie for keeping him focused. As this chapter of his life closed they happily welcomed into the family a son, Rick, Ross Frederick Bass, III.
Rick then became one of the first Ole Miss law graduates to be recruited by a major out-of-state law firm. He took a position with the prominent Gambrell firm in Atlanta and passed the Georgia bar exam on his first attempt. During these formative years in Atlanta, Rick honed his well-known skills as a top commercial litigator. He devised strategies for managing complex business disputes.
The pull of home brought the family back to Jackson in 1975, in time for the happy birth of his third and youngest child, Bonnie. Rick joined the litigation section of the Watkins Ludlam firm, where he became a partner and developed a robust practice. In 1981, Rick, Bill Jones, and David Mockbee formed the highly regarded litigation boutique firm, Jones Mockbee and Bass, and it grew until it became the Jackson office of the respected New Orleans firm, Phelps Dunbar. Rick rose to be a member of the firm’s board of directors and the managing partner of the Jackson office. Only someone of superior ability and congenial disposition could occupy these positions as long as he did.
Rick lived by the adage he coined himself, "Worry more and be a better lawyer." One would never have known it judging from his unflappable demeanor under fire. Always a spirited competitor, Rick was driven to win. Ever the good sportsman, however, he never fell short of perfect civility. He always played by the rules with genuine honesty, integrity, and a sense of fairness that won the respect of clients, colleagues, judges, employees, and even defeated opposing counsel. He generously devoted time to pro bono work and to teaching trial practice to generations of younger lawyers from many states. He was a quietly spiritual and compassionate man who, like his forebearers, strongly valued the inherent dignity of every human being.
Rick led an exciting life, full of adventures of ideas and experiences, family, friends, wit and humor, and a penchant for an Old Fashioned. He’s probably the only guy one will find who, as an 18-year-old, met Elvis on tour in Elvis’s hotel room, who as a college student played bridge with Omar Shariff as his partner, or who as a newly minted lawyer traveled to Denmark and the West Indies to litigate a peanut case.
In his family life, Rick enjoyed coaching his children’s sports teams and patiently teaching his children and their friends to water ski. Many wonderful family memories were made during the traditional summer stays at Pickwick Lake having fun and good cheer with the extended family and the other Jackson families at J.P. Coleman State Park.
Rick took great pleasure in moving closer to his three grandchildren, three children and their spouses. He championed their interests and achievements and felt that life was good. Nearly daily Rick dressed in his Ole Miss Rebel cap or shirt during his Katy, Texas, residence. A team loyalty he developed early in his life he attributed to his surviving maternal uncle, Ed Holcomb, that continues with his son Rick, cousin Bill Holcomb, son-in-law Joey Austin, and Rick’s nephew, Ross Cleveland Bass.
Rick’s beloved brother, Robert, predeceased him by fewer than three years. Rick is survived by his children, Susan Bass of Neskowin, OR; Rick Bass (Jennifer) of Loveland, CO; Bonnie Kirkland Bass Austin (Joey) of Katy, TX; grandchildren Anabelle and Max Austin, Roman Bass; sister, Elizabeth Kirkland Bass Raulston (Keith) of Townsend, TN; sister-in-law, Arlene (Arty) Bass, as well as nieces, Laura Raulston McCarthy (Matt) of Bellevue, WA; Mallory Bass (Alex) of Austin, TX; and nephew Ross Cleveland Bass of Jackson, MS. His beloved maternal uncle and aunt of Oxford, MS, Ed Holcomb and Betsy Cabaniss Holcomb survive Rick. Also, many beloved first cousins and extended family members survive Rick: Sharon Christian Whelan, George Harrison Christian, Rowland Jones Roberts (Bo), Dick Turner (Patsy), Bill Holcomb (Barbara), Jean Holcomb Shuttleworth (Todd), Jeff Harpole, Derrick Harpole and Shannon Harpole.
In keeping with his wishes, Rick’s corporeal remains will be interred in the Northminster Baptist Church Columbarium, where Rick was a charter member with his paternal grandfather, parents, brother Robert and sister Elizabeth. A celebration of Rick’s life to recall the gift of his company will occur in the fall. Memorials may be made to Northminster or to a charity of choice.
