Billy Hunsinger, a lifelong musician who played what he called “hobo” music, died Saturday in the house where he was born at 1132 N.Y. He was 70.

Hunsinger began to play guitar at age 9 or 10, and after high school he formed Billy Hunsinger and the Drifting Hobos. During the week, the group played live on radio stations in Lawrence, Atchison and Leavenworth. Weekends, it lit up nightclubs and dance halls.

Though he played what some might call hillbilly or country and western, he never liked those terms.

“He felt his music should be called hobo music,” said friend Barbara Brackman, Lawrence.

From 1956 to 1964, he ran The Billy Hunsinger Music Co. at 729 1/2 Mass., where he sold instruments and taught lessons using a color-coded chart and method he developed and patented.

In the mid-1960s, he began to lose interest in music and operated Hal’s Steak House. By the late 1960s, failing health forced him to retire.

In the 1980s, Hunsinger came back on the Lawrence music scene with the formation of The Lonesome Hobos. He shared vocals and songwriting with Dalton Howard, a Shawnee County resident he met in 1988.

“We decided to call it The Lonesome Hobos kind of as a lark,” Howard said. “We weren’t expecting to be anything big.”

As its reputation grew, the band played for friends, at bars and community events from the East Lawrence Recreation Center to the Potawatomi Reservation.

“What I loved about the Hobos is we were willing to play for free,” Howard said. “We did things for charity, for friends. Money was never an issue.”

Hunsinger, who friends describe as open and accepting, was the cornerstone of the band.

“It was a free feeling being around Billy because you could be yourself, and we all felt that way,” Howard said. “We were all friends, and he was the kingpin.”

Lawrence musician Chubby Smith said he “discovered” The Lonesome Hobos in the early 1990s and talked his way into the band, where he played dobro. Smith said he enjoyed Hunsinger’s stories about playing music.

“He was just always a riot. He always had something to say,” Smith said.

The group recorded two albums, a self-titled disc in 1996 and “Large Print Version,” released in August 2001.

Large Print Version got its name from the poster-sized lyric sheets Smith made so Hunsinger could read his lyrics.

“He was awfully sick, but he kept going anyhow,” Smith said. “I’m glad we’ve got those two CDs out it does offer some kind of immortality.”

Howard said Hunsinger’s knack for stage banter could put any crowd, or friend, at ease.

“He was a big man. He’s gonna leave a big hole in our own lives, but he left us a lot to fill it with,” Howard said. “I think that will be his legacy. All of us will try to be more like him.”