Continued: Nicholas O. Laney Nicholas Ogburn Laney, 75, husband of Mildred Burgess Laney of 439 Forest Ave., died Tuesday at the home. Native of Monroe, N.C.; son of the late Henry and Pearl Ogburn Laney; retired manager Belk-Hudson Co. at Hillcrest after 39 years of service; member of Central United Methodist Church; World War II veteran; graduate Duke University where he received honorable mention All-American in football; leader of the Nick Laney and His Blue Devil Orchestra later to become Les Brown and His Band of Renown. Also surviving: sons, Nick Laney Jr. of Spartanburg, W. Lanier Laney of New York City; brother, Yates Laney of Columbia; one grandchild. Graveside services 2 Friday in Greenlawn Memorial Gardens by the Rev. Gene Norris. Family will receive friends 7-8:30 tonight at Floyd's Greenlawn Chapel. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Nick Laney Music Scholarship Fund of Duke University, 2929 Chapel Hill Road, Durham, N.C. 27707. Nick Laney and His Blue Devil Orchestra played regularly on Duke�s campus and throughout North Carolina in the early 1930s. One of the band�s most significant accomplishments was its selection from over 150 college bands to play with Guy Lombardo at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City during the winter break of 1932-33. Previously, during a summer tour in the northeast in 1932, the band had met an up-and-coming saxophone player by the name of Les Brown. As Brown later recalled the meeting, �In the summer of 1932, I had the good fortune to meet Nick Laney and The Duke Blue Devils in Boston. . . . Although I was headed for the University of Pennsylvania, Nick encouraged me to join his dance band on tenor sax. I did, and spent four wonderful years at Duke.�[1] Les Brown and His Blue Devils performing in the 1930s; Courtesy of the Duke University Archives.One year into his time at Duke, Brown took over leadership of the Blue Devils, which Laney had vacated upon graduating in 1933. Brown led the group Les Brown and his Blue Devils from 1933�1936, achieving prominence across the southeast through regular tours of the region. Brown took the band on a particularly successful regional tour during the summer of 1936, after which he relocated to New York City to pursue a professional career in music. From Wikipedia, Duke ambassadors.
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