Service Gives a Musical Farewell to Bandleader Beneke

The song was empty without words, and the band members knew it as they played inside the Santa Ana union hall on Saturday. There was no “ . . . pardon me boy,” or “ . . . dinner in the diner,” but “Chattanooga Choo Choo” somehow still felt right.

It was Gordon Lee “Tex” Beneke’s signature arrangement--a song for which he earned the first gold record in history. On Saturday, during a memorial service for the legendary bandleader who died May 30, guests closed their eyes and tapped their feet as if it were the last time they would hear it.

Beneke, 86, died of respiratory arrest at a rest home in Costa Mesa after several months of declining health. A saxophonist, he became the leader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra after Miller died in World War II. That role was a springboard to his own fame.

Sandi Beneke told stories about her husband’s remarkable humility. It was his job to make his band, and not himself, glimmer in the spotlight.

“This music will live on,” she said.