Fans and friends of former Ohio Players frontman Leroy “Sugarfoot” Bonner will get two opportunities to honor the life and legacy of the Funk music legend.

Bonner died Saturday of cancer. The Hamilton native would have turned 70 on March 14.

The first of the public memorials will be held 4 p.m. Feb. 9 at House of Joy Christian Ministries, 5912 Hamilton Ave. in Cincinnati, according to Bonner’s granddaughter Shaile Foster, 33, of Cincinnati.

“It will be like a celebration,” Foster said.

She said her family has been moved by all the love and support they have received from fans and Bonner’s friends.

“That just brings joy to my heart to know he was loved like that,” Foster said.

She recalled memories of seeing her grandfather play with his bands at local festivals in Cincinnati. “I just remember those skin tight pants he had on. He would just be in the groove. I would love it and the crowd would be rocking with us.”

The Ohio Players, a Dayton-based Funk band, rose to international fame in the 1970s, with its hits that included, “Fire,” “Skin Tight,” and “Love Rollercoaster.”

Foster loves those songs, but another one of the Funk group’s hits is her favorite.

“Heaven Must Be Like This,” she said. “And I think he now knows what its like.”

Robert A. Menafee, 44, a fan who lives in Oakwood, and distant cousin of Marshall “Rock” Jones, former bass player for Ohio Players, described the group as having “the compositional sophistication of Duke Ellington and the gut-bucket soul of James Brown.” He added, “The names of the Players was about how well they played their instruments. These guys were steeped in Jazz…It’s funk that swings.”

Details of the Feb. 9 memorial are still being planned.

Donald “Duck” Blanton of CITYBOY Entertainment in Trotwood will host a Birthday Bash Tribute for his friend and mentor at 5 p.m. March 14 at Gilly’s, 132 S. Jefferson St. in downtown Dayton.

Attendees will be asked to make a donation, which will be used as funds donated to the American Cancer Society and a college music program.

“If they loved the music that they heard Mr. Bonner craft, then I think they need to come out and support (this tribute) and give their last farewell to Mr. Bonner,” Blanton said.

The plan is to have local bands perform songs made popular by The Ohio Players, the Funk group that Bonner co-founded. Some of the special guests include Tim Abrams, formerly of the now defunct band New Horizons; and Scot Brown, associate professor in UCLA’s Department of History.

“This will be a way for the musicians to say goodbye to Mr. Bonner,” Blanton said.

“There was nobody like him in terms of singing and playing,” said Charles Cedell Carter of another Dayton-based Funk group Slave, referring to Bonner. He added that other frontmen from R&B; and Funk groups like the O’Jays, Earth Wind & Fire, Commodores and Cameo all tried to copy Bonner’s singing style. “Everybody tried to imitate him, but nobody could do it like him.”

Bonner and another Hamilton native, Greg Webster, joined former Ohio Untouchables band members Jones, Ralph “Pee Wee” Middlebrooks, and Clarence “Satch” Satchell to form the Ohio Players in 1968, according to Jones, 72, of Jamestown. The group did not play publically under the name Ohio Players until after Bonner and Webster joined, he said.

When asked to describe Bonner, Jones referred to him as a brother and gave this poetic statement, “Sugar was a man of rolling thunder of enormous talent who could seized the moment and found unique paths to walk. From small steps to great strides. Appeasing the ancestors, pausing at the gate, the gentleman becomes a sage and achieves immortality.”

In addition to Bonner’s March 14 tribute, Blanton is in the process of planning tribute events for other funk music giants, including the late Roger Troutman, Mark Adams and Mark Hicks of Slave and Billy Ray from Lakeside.

“These are the guys that basically put Funk music together here in Dayton,” Blanton said. “Those were the groups that hit the charts…They were known around the world. Especially overseas where they packed tens of thousands of people into concert venues.”

For more details about Bonner’s Birthday Bash Tribute, contact Blanton at 718-3313, by email at cityboyblanton@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page.