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ecosystem — was the perfect subject for an in-depth interview but that had eluded us. I fondly recall gin and tonics and art-filled discussions in his book room, but we never aligned a date for him to be interviewed. So, it was synchronistic when I ran into Menil registrar and artist David Aylsworth last year on his way to the museum bookstore. He and his husband, Paul Forsythe, were Lassiter's Montrose neighbors and at the nucleus of the late collector's inner circle of friends. Along with gallerists Hiram Butler and Josh Pazda, they were family to Lassiter, especially after his lifetime partner, Edward Mayo, MFAH founding registrar, passed away in 2005. Mayo's death signaled a new era: Not only did Lassiter soldier on, but he thrived. His true personality— as dry as the gin martinis he loved, but also warm with a curiosity for objects, artworks, places, and most of all people — shone the last two decades of his life. Aylsworth often ferried his eccentric non-driving friend to and from the MFAH, where he was a volunteer for 13 years, and where his meticulous attention to detail, intellectual curiosity, and knowledge of the Houston art world and art history made him an exemplary museum volunteer; he earned the MFAH Henry Kahn Roos Volunteer of the Year award in 2011. As Aylsworth and I chatted, he told me that Lassiter's estate had commissioned Houston artist Emily Peacock to photograph Lassiter's art-filled bungalow, a 46-year trove of objects, ephemera, paintings, sculpture and personal totems. The result — an in- depth portfolio of her rediscovered images, taken just after Lassiter's passing. I received a rare call from Lassiter one day, in 2011. His voice message, preserved on my original iPhone 3GS said, "Hi, darling, the garden is glorious. Please come by for gin and tonics." It was during that visit I began to learn about this remarkable gentleman. Other telling details of his biography have been filled in by a host of friends. Born on October 12, 1932, in Washington, D.C., during the Great Depression, Lassiter moved to Houston when he was 10 with his mother. He decamped back to Washington for high school, residing with his maternal grandparents. In 1950, he returned to Houston, where he enrolled at the University of St. Thomas, graduating in 1954 with a BA in English literature. Then came graduate courses at Rice University, again in English literature. His Houston collegiate years proved to be a blessing, as it placed him in the middle of Texas' post-war boomtown and a cultural Renaissance that would alter his life irrevocably, as well as shape Houston's emergence as an art capital of the Southwest. Bill Lassiter's famed book room, site of cocktails and conversation for nearly half a century. (Continued) 51