MUNCHKIN CORONER RIP

Meinhardt Raabe Judy Garland

ORANGE PARK, Fla. – Meinhardt Raabe (MYN' hahrt RAH' bee), who played the Munchkin coroner in "The Wizard of Oz," has died.

His caregiver, Cindy Bosnyak, said Raabe died Friday morning at a hospital in Orange Park, Fla. He was 94 and was one of the few surviving Munchkins from the 1939 film.

Bosnyak said he complained of a sore throat at his retirement community before collapsing.

Raabe was a veteran "midget" performer, as little people were then known, when the film was made. He was the official who pronounces the Wicked Witch "really most sincerely dead."



In a 1988 Associated Press interview, he said he had no idea the movie would become a classic, because at the time of its release, it was overshadowed by "Gone With the Wind."