Bowling Green was always home to Alex DePue, and that’s where he’ll have his final farewell.

The musical genius, known as “The Fiddler,” died in a Jan. 26 car crash in Mexico. His memorial service is set for Sunday at 4 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church of Bowling Green; doors will open at 3 p.m.

“Bowling Green is where he started his life,” said his father, Wallace DePue, who said his son’s talents were evident when Alex was 2 years old.

“When he was just a baby, I found out he had perfect pitch. When I would sing to him, he would sing it back perfectly,” Wallace said. “I got him a tiny violin, and he learned it.”

Alex was a member of the DePue Brothers Band, whose most popular CD is “When It’s Christmas Time.” Alex and his brothers — Zach, 43; Jason, 46; and Wallace Jr., 53 — were all virtuoso violinists and played music of any style. Once, Alex won a contest by playing “The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto” and he went on to win many fiddle contests.

Alex would have turned 50 today.

Wallace DePue Jr. said that Alex always cherished opportunities to come home to Bowling Green.

“This is where his career started and he won all the local fiddle contests around the area,” Wallace Jr. said.

Alex joined a Toledo polka band that did a lot of gigs in the area, then he formed the country band Most Wanted.

“After that, he took all the experience he learned in this area and moved to Nashville,” Wallace Jr. said, adding that Alex also lived in California.

“Whenever there was an opportunity to come home and give a concert for the brothers, he would do that, because it was his way to say thank you,” Wallace Jr. said.

A DePue Brothers performance was something special, he said.

“It was easy, we didn’t need to really rehearse that much,” Wallace Jr. said. “We could read each other’s minds.”

Wallace Sr. said all of the boys could sing and they had a barbershop quartet while growing up. Alex was enthralled with the fiddle, he said.

“He had something in his soul that talked to his fingers, and his fingers did the impossible,” Wallace Sr. said. “He played the classics, country, rock and roll — and what’s more he could write.

“He could play at your wedding, he could play at your barn dance, he could play a classic symphony or rock and roll.”

One of the brothers’ most memorable performances was Alex’s proposal to his wife Aria Curzon.

In 2018, Alex asked Aria to marry him in front of a live audience. During that performance, he brought down the theater lights and had his brothers softly playing “The Pachelbel Canon” as they approached the middle of the hall, where he was on his knees. They married on Aug. 8 in Mexico where they lived.

“It was planned, he was very nervous,” Wallace Jr. recalled, adding that Alex wanted his family around him for the proposal. “He did everything to make it work.”

“They were in love like you would see in a movie,” Wallace Sr. said. “And he was happy, that was the happiest I think I’ve ever seen him.”

Alex built his own recording studio and made several CDs of his own. He would record his solo, then record his accompaniment by playing the piano, guitar, double bass, etc. In many of his recitals, Alex was accompanied by Miguel De Hoyos, a virtuoso guitarist.

Alex once performed with the bands of Steve Vai (guitarist in the “Crossroads movie), Little Jimmy Dickens (Grand Ole Opry star) and Kevin Costner (“Dances With Wolves”). He won the Windfield, Kansas, National Championship Fiddle Contest twice. Alex is also in the Guinness Book of World Records, for his speed in playing the “Flight of the Bumble Bee” (by Rimsky-Korsakov).

(Some information for this story was taken from Alex’s obituary and the DePue Brothers’ social media.)