The Conkling Family
We are the 5 children of James Brewster Conkling and Donna Olivia Driggs Conkling. Our Father
was a music and broadcasting executive who helped create the award now commonly called The
Grammy Awards and the Columbia Record Club. Our Mother was one of the original King Sisters.
James Brewster Conkling
James Brewster Conkling was the head of Artists and Repertoire at Capitol Records, the President
of Columbia Records and the first President of Warner Brothers Records. He was instrumental in
founding the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and during his presidency oversaw
the signing of such stars as Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, and Dave Brubeck.
Mr. Conkling was born in East Orange, N.J., graduated from Dartmouth College and attended graduate
school at the University of Pennsylvania. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he went
to work for Capitol, and at the end of the 1940's was the Vice-President in charge of Artists and
Repertoire, working with performers like Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Les Paul, and Stan
Kenton. Under his leadership he and Alan Livingston also developed a significant children's record
division including the invention of "Bozo the Clown".
In 1957, he helped found the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which awards the
Grammys, and then became the founding chairman of the Academy. He built membership by selling
discounted albums to members. "Without Jim, there would have been no academy", said the producer
George Avakian, who worked with Mr. Conkling at Columbia.
Donna King Conkling
Donna King Conkling was one of the original four King Sisters who gained fame as a singing act
in the 1930s and 1940s, and who appeared on a weekly national ABC show "The King Family" in the
1960s.
Donna began singing with her sisters as a trio on local radio station KSL in Salt Lake City and
four of the six sisters joined Horace Heidt's orchestra with then future brother-in-law,
pioneering steel guitarist, Alvino Rey.
In the late 1930s they left Heidt, so that Rey could form his own orchestra with the King Sisters.
The girls sang with his band until 1943, with hits including a vocal version of the Glenn Miller
song "In the Mood." The 1941 tune "Nighty Night" became the band's theme song.
The sisters also worked in films throughout the '40s, including "Sing Your Worries Away" starring
Buddy Ebsen, "Meet the People" starring Lucille Ball and Dick Powell, and "Cuban Pete" starring Desi
Arnaz.
After leaving the group in 1951 to accompany her husband to New York and raise their children, the
family moved to California as James Brewster Conkling moved from President of Columbia Records to
start Warner Brother Records. The King Family Television Show in the mid- and late 1960s led to a
renewal of interest in the singing group.
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