Famed Jazz Singer Joe Williams Dies After Walking Out Of Las Vegas Hospital

Jet, April 19, 1999

Joe Williams, one of the most acclaimed jazz vocalists of all time, recently collapsed and died on a Las Vegas street after abruptly walking out of a hospital where he was being treated. He was 80.

His manager, John Levy, told JET that Williams had been hospitalized at Las Vegas' Sunrise Hospital for a week after having had breathing problems. He said the singer had been hospitalized in Seattle about a week earlier for the same problem. He was found several blocks from his home after police were told by hospital workers that Williams was missing.

"Joe was disoriented," Levy said. "The medication caused him not to have it all together. The medication gave him the shakes. He just wanted to get out of the hospital any way he could. He called his wife and his friend Johnny Pate to pick him up. The last conversation I had with him was Sunday, and he said he had to get out of there. His conversation was wild and rambling. I knew something was wrong. He wasn't of his right mind. He never would have walked out of that hospital."

Levy said Williams had walked about two miles without his oxygen tank when he collapsed. He said his client had a history of respiratory difficulties but always recovered with the assistance of oxygen and other treatment. Officials at Sunrise Hospital could not be reached for comment by JET press time.

Clark County (NV) Coroner Ron Flud said that Williams' death was apparently of natural causes. The hospital had reported Williams missing several hours before his body was found.

Williams' sudden death shocked fans around the world, including President Bill Clinton who issued a statement that read: "Hillary and I were deeply saddened to learn of the death of jazz and blues great Joe Williams. He was a national treasure. For the better part of this century, America was blessed with Joe Williams' smooth baritone voice and peerless interpretations of our favorite ballads. Heating Joe Williams sing at the White House in 1993 remains one of my favorite memories. Hillary and I are grateful for the opportunity to have welcomed him back for the Kennedy Center Honors every year since. We send our prayers and deepest sympathies to his family and friends."

Williams became an international jazz sensation in 1955 with the release of Ev'ry Day I Have The Blues. He sang with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1954 to 1961. He performed on a CBS radio show in the late 1930s and traveled with Lionel Hampton, Coleman Hawkins and Jimmy Noone.

He was born Joseph Goreed in Cordele, GA, in 1918, but was raised in Chicago by his mother and grandmother. The L.A. Times reported that at age 14, Williams organized a gospel quartet, the Jubilee Temple Boys of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and sang at churches around the area. His voice soon transformed into that famed baritone that brought him acclaim. One of his biggest breaks came in 1943 when he was a security guard at Chicago's famed Regal Theater and met such luminaries as Duke Ellington.

Williams reached an entirely different audience in the 1980s when he played his good friend Bill Cosby's father-in-law Grandpa A1 on "The Cosby Show." And he was a regular at the prestigious Playboy Jazz Festival, performing at that annual music celebration 10 times.

In a 1995 L.A. Times profile, Williams was asked about the inability of legends like him to reach the level of his White contemporaries. He said: "There's a reason for that. You can't put down a people on one hand and treat them as romantic heroes on the other, can you? How can you do that and still keep up with the status quo? A friend of mine once said that hate is too important an emotion to waste on someone you don't like."

In an interview a decade ago, Williams said: "I'm most pleasantly surprised at what still comes out of my throat. I'm thrilled and thankful. I remember Edward (Duke Ellington) saying, `I'm just a messenger boy from God.' Much of what we do comes through us. I thank God for what comes through me."

Williams is survived by his fourth wife, Jillean Hughes Dath, to whom he was married for 40 years. Services were set for April 7 at JET press time at the First Church of Religious Science in Las Vegas.

To make a donation to the Joe Williams Scholarship Fund, make checks payable to "Board of Regents" (specify Joe Williams Scholarship Fund in the memo area). Mail checks to: Financial Aid Office (Attn: Lily Alvarez), Community College of Southern Nevada, 3200 E. Cheyenne, North Las Vegas, NV, 89030. To telephone, call (702) 651-4000.