Donna King Conkling, singer with the King Sisters; at 88

LOS ANGELES -- Donna King Conkling, one of the singing King Sisters who gained fame in the 1930s and 1940s in bands led by Horace Heidt and Alvino Rey, died Wednesday in Plano, Texas. She was 88.

Mrs. King Conkling, who also appeared on the weekly ABC-TV program "The King Family" in the 1960s, had asthma and cancer.

Donna Olivia Driggs was born Sept. 3, 1918, in Sanford, Colo., where her father, William King Driggs, was a music teacher. The Driggs family was continually on the move, landing in Utah, Arizona, Idaho, and California.

Three of her sisters -- Maxine, Luise, and Alyce -- formed a vocal group and began performing while in junior high school. According to the King Sisters' official website, the girls made their radio debut on KLX, an Oakland, Calif., station, in 1931.

With the Depression on, the girls' radio income was supporting the family. They moved to Salt Lake City for a better paying job. The station manager disliked their name, however, and demanded that they change it. They settled on the name King.

By 1934, Heidt had heard the sisters on a KLX broadcast and decided to hire them as special guests for his band's engagement in San Francisco. Heidt eventually added two sisters and a family friend to create "The Six King Sisters."

But when it was time to go out on the road, Heidt cut the group down to four for economic reasons. Working as a quartet, the King Sisters was made up of Yvonne, Donna, Alyce, and Luise. The girls sang in tight, four-part harmony with Yvonne or Alyce taking the occasional solo.

Mrs. Conkling , who had married James Conkling in 1943, left the group by the end the decade. They had five children, who survive her as well as 23 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Conkling died in 1998 at 83.