Lincoln County resident Wallace Lewis, known to bluegrass and gospel music fans through four decades of performances with The Lewis Family, died Wednesday in Wills Memorial Hospital in Washington, Ga.

He was 78. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Hephzibah Baptist Church near Lincolnton, Ga., with burial in the church cemetery. Visitation will be 6-9 p.m. Friday at Rees Funeral Home, 195 Peachtree St., in Lincolnton.

Survivors include his wife, Betty; two sons, Travis and Keith; a daughter, Karen; three sisters, Miggie Lewis, Polly Lewis Copsey and Janis Lewis Phillips; and three brothers, Talmadge, Esley and "Little Roy" Lewis.

Mr. Lewis had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for several years and had retired from touring in 1995. He made occasional appearances at The Lewis Family's annual Homecoming & Bluegrass Festival outside Lincolnton, Ga.

Along with his performing family members that included his father, brother, son, nephew and three sisters, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992.

James Wallace Lewis was born in the Lewis family homestead outside of Lincolnton on July 6, 1928, one of eight children of the late Pauline and Roy "Pop" Lewis.

He was co-founder of The Lewis Family, performing originally on back porches and in small churches as The Lewis Brothers in the early '50s with his siblings .

As rhythm guitarist and vocalist with The Lewis Family, Mr. Lewis recorded on more than 60 albums and crisscrossed the nation doing more than 200 shows a year in venues ranging from bluegrass festivals in cow pastures to the Lincoln Center in New York City.

He was seen weekly for 38 years on The Lewis Family's television show broadcast over WJBF-TV in Augusta and syndicated to several other stations. Chet Atkins, Elvis Presley and former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower were fans of the broadcast.

"He was the one that kept us all together," his younger sister, Janis Lewis Phillips, said Thursday. "He wrote a lot of songs and sang lead on many of them. He also encouraged Little Roy and Talmadge to play other instruments."

Mr. Lewis would sit in the front of several of The Lewis Family's touring buses with a large map advising his brother, Little Roy, and upright-bass-playing son, Travis, on driving directions.

"Wallace kept us on the right road in more ways than one," Ms. Phillips said.