Jerry Franklin Daniels; Member of Ink Spots

Jerry Franklin Daniels, 79, the last surviving original member of the singing quartet known as the Ink Spots. Daniels spent most of his life in Indianapolis, where the foursome started singing for coins on street corners in 1931 and adopted the name the Ink Spots in 1932. He left the group in 1936 and was replaced by Bill Kenny, shortly before the crooners recorded their most famous song, “If I Didn’t Care.” Lead tenor for the quartet, Daniels made a recording and occasionally performed with an imitative group, the Nate Williams Ink Spots, in the 1990s. Daniels was educated at Indiana University, served in the Army during World War II and later taught at the MacArthur Conservatory of Music in Indianapolis. He spent most of his career in state government, notably with the excise police, and sang in church choirs on the side. In 1988 Daniels received Indiana’s highest civic honor, the designation Sagamore of the Wabash. On Tuesday in Indianapolis.