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Williams was born in Plaquemine, Louisiana , ran away from home at age 12 to join Billy Kersand 's Traveling Minstrel Show , then moved to New Orleans . At first Williams worked shining shoes and doing odd jobs, but soon became known as a singer and master of ceremonies. By the early 1910s he was a well regarded local entertainer also playing Piano , and was composing new tunes by 1913 . Williams was a good business man and worked arranging and managing entertainment at the local African-American Vaudeville theater as well as various saloons and dance halls around Rampart Street, and clubs and houses in Storyville . Williams started a music publishing business with violinist/bandleader Armand J. Piron 1915 . He toured briefly with W.C. Handy , set up a publishing office in Chicago, Illinois , then settled in New York in the early 1920s . In 1921 he married blues singer and stage actress Eva Taylor with whom he would frequently perform. He supervised African-American recordings for New York officies of Okeh phonograph company in the 1920s ; also lead bands frequently for Columbia and occasionally other Record Label s. He also produced and participated in early recordings by Louis Armstrong , Sidney Bechet , Bessie Smith and many others. In 1943 Williams sold his extensive back-catalogue of tunes to Decca Records for $50,000 and retired, but then bought a bargain used goods store which he ran to keep himself busy. Williams died in Queens , New York City in 1965 and was interred in Saint Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale , Long Island , New York . On her passing in 1977, his wife was interred next to him. Their grandson is Clarence Williams III . Clarence Williams' name appears as composer or co-composer on numerous tunes, including a number which by Williams' own admission were written by others but which Williams bought all rights to outright, as was a common practice in the music publishing business at the time. Clarence Williams hits include "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate", "Baby, Won't You Please Come Home", "Royal Garden Blues", "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do" and many others. In 1970, Clarence Williams was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame . EXTERNAL LINKS
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