NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Thursday, April 11, 1996
7A
Mourners recall Brown's humor
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Ron Brown was laid to rest yesterday after President Clinton celebrated Brown's life in a funeral that reflected the commerce secretary's upbeat style. "He would have loved this deal today," the president said.
The funeral produced an outpouring of respect unusual even in pomp-loving Washington. High-
ranking bureaucrats and government clerks shared pews in the stately National Cathedral, crowded to capacity. Thousands filed past his coffin overnight in the Commerce Department lobby.
Ron Brown
- There, Clinton took the flag folded by Brown's military pall bearers and presented it to Brown's widow, Alma. Although the day was sunny and bright, the flag-draped coffin had a plastic cover, too, because a few snow flurries were falling.
historic Black Shaw neighborhood, past the Commerce Department and across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery.
"Ron Brown's incredible life force brought us all joy in the morning," the president said. "No dark night could ever defeat him. . . This man loved life and all the things in it."
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Brown, the first black commerce secretary, was killed along with 34 others a week ago in a plane crash while on a trade mission to Croatia.
Brown, who was 54, qualified for internment in the cemetery of heroes because he was a Cabinet official who had an honorable military background. He served four years in the Army during the Korean War.
2:30 p.m.: Funeral procession entered Arlington National Cemetery; coffin transferred to horse-drawn caisson with military escort; no media coverage beyond this point
His son, Michael, began the funeral by thanking the Croatians who climbed the hillside to bring down the bodies.
After the service, Brown's hearse wound through the streets of the
The son smiled during his tribute to a father so close that they still kissed on the lips until last week. Michael Brown brought on laughter when he told of hearing his father described as smooth as a swan, and graceful under pressure.
"And then I said, 'Wait a minute, these people have never played golf with him before.'" Michael said. "He has problems with about 2 1/2-foot putts, and grace under pressure I would not call that."
Secretary Brown's funeral
"Ron Brown enjoyed a lot of success," the president said. "He proved you could do well and do good and have a good time. ... He lived his life for America, and when the time came, he was found laying down his life for America."
As chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1992, Brown was a spark plug in Clinton's campaign for the presidency.
"I want to say to my friend, just one last time, thank you," Clinton said, glancing down at the coffin, "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here."
He recalled a time in Los Angeles when they came upon children playing basketball.
3 p.m.: Burial in section 6
"They asked me if we'd like to play," Clinton recalled. "So we divided up sides; he took a few kids, I took a few kids. All of a sudden he forgot who was president and how he got his job."
Brown was known for his dapper attire.
"I'm telling you, folks, he would have loved this deal today," Clinton said. "As I look around, I see that all of us are dressed almost as well as he would be today." The comment brought a ripple of laughter.
Among the mourners were O.J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran Jr., singer Stevie Wonder, retired
Gen. Colin Powell and former New York Mayor David Dinkins. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy, who knew Brown, were among those attending as well, along with Cabinet members and members of Congress.
Seated in the front row across the aisle from the Brown family were the president, Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, and Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper.
But it was not merely the dignitaries who were moved by Brown's untimely death.
"This is probably one of the saddest moments in American history for all of us," said Velton Lewis, 43, a labor relations assistant at the Commerce Department, who stood along the funeral procession route. "Ron Brown was a unique individual. Ron Brown was a visionary. Ron Brown is going to be a loss not only to Ron Brown's family, but to the family of America."
He put his whole self into the song
Little-known author of the Hokey Pokey song dies at age 83
The Associated Press
Every schoolchild in America knows The Hokey Pokey. You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in ... well, you know what it's all about.
What you might not know is who wrote the song, Larry LaPrise, better known as The Hokey Pokey Man, died last week at age 83 in Boise, Idaho, after a career that brought him no fame, modest fortune and a Postal Service job.
That's right. Someone actually wrote The Hokey Poken.
For many baby boomers and their children, The Hokey Pokey is simply part of the national legacy, right up there with Mother Goose and apple pie.
"I just assumed it had been around forever," said a shocked Leyah Strauss of New York.
But The Hokey Pokey, it turns out, isn't so old after all.
LaPrise, a Detroit native whose full name was Roland Lawrence LaPrise, wrote the song, along with two fellow musicians, in the late 1940s for the ski club at a nightclub in Sun Valley, Idaho. The music group the Ram Trio recorded the song in 1949.
"The Hokey Pokey is like a square dance, really," LaPrise said in 1992. "You turn around. You shake it all about. Everyone is in a circle, and it gets them all involved."
In 1953, bandleader Ray Anthony bought the rights and recorded The Hokey Pokey on the B-side of another novelty record, The Bunny Hop.
"Everybody was doing The Bunny Hop before long, which
meant that everybody was doing The Hokey Pokey," said Linda Ruby, LaPrise's daughter. She wasn't sure how much Ray Anthony paid for the song, she said.
A steady succession of recordings followed, by artists such as Jack Johnson and the Hickory Dickory Singers, Warren Covington with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Chubby Checker and Annette Funicello.
In no time The Hokey Pokey was everywhere. Schoolyards. Brownie troop meetings. Bar mitzvahs. Weddings.
By the early 1990s, it had even turned up on a heavy metal album by the band Haunted Garage, alongside songs like Party in the Graveyard and Torture Dungeon.
Alas, The Hokey Pokey was the high watermark of LaPrise's musical career.
"He wrote several other songs, probably none of which you've ever heard." Ruby said.
After the Ram Trio disbanded in the 1960s, LaPrise, by then a father of six, went to work for the post office in Ketchum. About the same time, country star Roy Acuff's publishing company bought the rights to The Hokey Pokey.
"Roy Acuff had seen a lot of his material copied so he was very conscious about songwriters getting the credit," Ruby said. "It wasn't until after dad had his family raised that he started getting royalty checks, which was a nice bonus for him."
LaPrise later retired with his wife, Donna, to Wendell. He died April 4 after a long illness.
Strauss said The Hokey Pokey had a deeper meaning.
"It's kind of symbolic of life, in a way," she said. "I mean, you put your right foot in, you put your right foot out. ... I mean, that's kind of like life, right?"
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