Bandleader. Born in Tyrone, Pennsylvania, Waring showed an early affinity for music, making his first stage appearance at the age of five. As a teenager, Waring, his brother Tom, and friends Freddie Buck and Poley McClintock, formed the Waring-McClintock Snap Orchestra. In college, the quartet became known as Waring's Banjo Orchestra. The band became so popular that Waring decided to abandon his studies and tour with the band full time. Throughout the 1920s Waring and the growing band, now called The Pennsylvanians, toured from coast to coast. They also starred in several movies including "Syncopation" and "Varsity Show." Their recording of the waltz-paced tune "Sleep" for Thomas Edison became their first theme song. They would make one of the first commercial electronic sound recordings with the company that would become RCA. By the 1930s, Waring and the Pennsylvanians were a 55-piece orchestra. It was also during the 1930s that Waring helped refine the design for an electric blender. Waring blenders became an essential kitchen appliance. Dr. Jonas Salk used the Waring blender in his development of the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh. During World War II, Waring's band appeared at war bond rallies and entertained the troops at training camps. Waring composed and performed dozens of patriotic songs, his most famous being "My America." Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s, Waring and The Pennsylvanians produced a string of hits, selling millions of records, and remained among the best known musical groups in the country. In 1943, Waring acquired the Buckwood Inn in Shawnee on Delaware, Pennsylvania, and renamed the resort the Shawnee Inn and broadcast his radio programs from the stage of Worthington Hall, now known as Shawnee Playhouse, throughout the 1950s. Waring expanded into television in 1949 with "The Fred Waring Show." The program ran until 1955. In 1983, the 83-year-old Waring was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest honor for a civilian, by President Ronald Reagan. Until his death, Waring taught and supervised choral singing workshops. He died suddenly in 1984 at Penn State University just after videotaping a concert with his band. His archives from his nearly 70-year career are at Penn State.