Later Years
The Mills Brothers' fiftieth anniversary in show business was celebrated in 1976 with a tribute at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, hosted by Bing Crosby. At the time, Harry was now almost blind because of diabetes.
As a trio, Herbert, Harry and Donald continued performing on the oldies circuit until Harry's death in 1982. Herbert and Donald continued until Herbert's death in 1989. Then, Donald began performing with the third generation of the family – his son, John III. In 1998 the Recording Academy recognized the Mills family's contributions to popular music when it presented Donald, as the sole surviving member, with a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
After Donald's death of pneumonia on November 13, 1999, John III began touring under the name "The Mills Brothers" with Elmer Hopper, who had previously sung lead with Paul Robi's Platters.
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The Mills Brothers in concert, March 2005
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John Mills, son, grandson and nephew of the original group’s members
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Elmer Hopper, who spent 21 years with The Platters
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Famous quotes containing the word years:
“Perfect present has no existence in our consciousness. As I said years ago in Erewhon, it lives but upon the sufferance of past and future. We are like men standing on a narrow footbridge over a railway. We can watch the future hurrying like an express train towards us, and then hurrying into the past, but in the narrow strip of present we cannot see it. Strange that that which is the most essential to our consciousness should be exactly that of which we are least definitely conscious.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“A man may take care of a furnace for twenty-five years and still forget to duck his head when he starts going down the cellar stairs.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)