Bruner played with the ensemble's classically trained fiddler Cecil Brower to create the memorable double fiddle sound of Milton Brown's group.

Cliff Bruner is an unsung star of the little-noted Country music charts that appeared in Billboard prior to 1944.

Ella Ruth had a brother named Leroy Leger who was a Lieutenant Colonel the Air Force and worked for General Douglas MacArthur during the occupation of Japan and also lived in the Panama Canal and retired in San Antonio Texas.

He died of cancer on August 25, 2000, and was survived by his wife, six daughters, seventeen grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren.

Bruner's big band disbanded in the 1950s, however, he continued to play music, and his trio appeared in the 1984 Sally Field movie Places in the Heart.