Ralph Rainger

 Ralph Rainger (October 7, 1901 – October 23, 1942)

Rainger embarked on a legal career before escaping to Broadway where he became Clifton Webb's accompanist. His first hit "Moanin' Low," with lyrics by Howard Dietz, was written for Webb's co-star Libby Holman in the 1929 revue The Little Show. Moving to Hollywood, Rainger teamed up with lyricist Leo Robin to produce a string of successful film songs, including "I'll Take An Option On You" from the Broadway hit show "Tattle Tales" (1933). In the years that followed, Rainger wrote or collaborated on such hit songs as "I Wished on the Moon", "Love in Bloom" (comedian Jack Benny's theme song), "Faithful Forever", "Easy Living", "June in January", "Blue Hawaii", and with Leo Robin on the 1938 Oscar-winning song "Thanks for the Memory", sung by Bob Hope in the film The Big Broadcast of 1938. Rainger died in a plane crash near Palm Springs, California, in 1942. He was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 28, a DC-3 airliner that was involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Army Air Corps bomber. He was 41 years old, and married with three children. Rainger is interred at Forest Lawn-Glendale.