BAND LEADER WHO TOOK OVER GLENN MILLER'S POST DIES

Ray McKinley, the drummer and vocalist who took over the Glenn Miller Orchestra after Miller's plane was lost during World War II, has died in Largo, Fla. He was 84.

McKinley began playing the drums at age 9 with dance bands in his home town of Fort Worth, Texas. In 1934 he joined the orchestra of brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.By the end of the 1930s, McKinley had a solid reputation as a first-rate musician and a singer of novelty tunes. He joined the Miller Orchestra in 1942. When Miller's plane disappeared during an English Channel crossing in 1944, McKinley conducted the band until the war ended and again for a decade after 1956.