http://www.cnn.com/US/9604/10/newsbriefs/:

Creator of 'The Hokey Pokey' dies

(CNN) -- Every child in America, and almost every adult, knows the Hokey Pokey. You just put your right foot in and put your right foot out to perform one of the best-known circle dances in American history.

Its popularity belies its age, and conceals its author. The man who wrote the song, Larry LaPrise, died last week at 83 in Boise, Idaho.

He wrote the tune for the Sun Valley, Idaho, ski crowd in the late 1940s, but it took a recording by big band leader Ray Anthony to make the Hokey Pokey a nationwide phenomenon. (It appeared on the B side of the "Bunny Hop" single.)

LaPrise didn't receive royalties for the song until the 1960s, when its rights were purchased by country star Roy Acuff's publishing company.

In recent years, LaPrise worked in the post office in Ketchum, Idaho. Children often wrote him notes addressed to "The Hokey Pokey Man."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_LaPrise:

Larry LaPrise (Roland Lawrence LaPrise, born: 11 November 1912 Detroit, Michigan, died: 4 April 1996 Gooding, Idaho) was the writer of the Hokey Pokey.

LaPrise wrote the song in the late 1940s for the après-ski crowd at a club in Sun Valley, Idaho. The song was first recorded by his group the Ram Trio (with Charles Macak and Tafit Baker) in 1949. They were awarded U.S. copyright in 1950.

After the group broke up in the 1960s, LaPrise worked for the Post Office in Ketchum, Idaho.

The authorship of the Hokey Pokey is disputed, with Jimmy Kennedy claiming to have written the original (entitled Cokey-Cokey, or Hokey-Cokey, or Okey-Cokey) during WWII. Robert Degan sued LaPrise for copyright infringement of his 1946 The Hokey-Pokey Dance. They settled out of court.

Some scholars attribute the origin to the Shaker song Hinkum-Booby which had similar lyrics and was published in Edward Deming's A gift to be simple in 1940:

I put my right hand in,

I put my right hand out,

I give my right hand a shake,

And I turn it all about.

Email from a friend:

I don't usually pass on news like this, but sometimes we need to pause and remember what life is about. There was a great loss recently in the entertainment world. Larry LaPrise, the Detroit native who wrote the song "Hokey Pokey" died last week at 83. It was especially difficult for the family to keep him in the casket. They'd put his left leg in and ...... that's when the trouble began ........