Bill Tracy, 72; Sang With Modernaires, Played Comic’s Straight Man

Bill Tracy, 72, a singer who was a member of the Modernaires quartet, died Nov. 20 in a Scottsdale, Ariz., hospital from complications after heart surgery. The Cathedral City, Calif., resident was in Arizona for a performance when he had a heart attack seven months ago.

A native of Detroit, Tracy appeared in films as a member of the Bob Mitchell Boys Choir in the late 1940s and ‘50s. In 1963, he began a 10-year stint as comedian Jackie Curtiss’ straight man, appearing regularly on late-night television talk shows.

When Tracy joined the Modernaires in 1987, the group that started as a trio in 1935 had seen many singers come and go. In recent years, the quartet had regularly toured the U.S. and performed overseas.

At a 1988 roast of actor Donald O’Connor in Beverly Hills, O’Connor deemed the group “a close second” to the original members, who in their heyday sang with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.