His name is Rufus, but maybe it should have been Danny Boy, for the song by that title has made him famous.

He sang it first when he was a member of the Red Tops in the 1950s, here in Vicksburg and all around the state, often on the college circuit. Then he sang it at some of the famous clubs in Las Vegas and overseas.

Rufus McKay has been singing for most of his 84 years, but he began with cowboy and country songs when he was about 5, going to the picture shows at the Strand Theater on Clay Street where he could see the afternoon movies on Saturdays for just a penny.

He was supposed to stay only an hour, he said, for later the older people started coming in. He would hide under the seats while the projector was being set up. On one side of the building was a fire escape that went under the B.B. Club, and Rufus would sneak out that way, meet his older brother on Clay Street — who was too old to get in for a penny — and go back in the same way.