Lottie Williams

Charlotte Louise Johnson, known as Lottie Williams and Lottie Thompson (1866 – March 17, 1929), was an American actress, singer, and dancer. A pioneering performer in African-American musical theater, she is best remembered for starring in several stage works with her second husband, Bert Williams, both on Broadway and in vaudeville. These included several musicals created by composer Will Marion Cook, lyricist Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the playwright Jesse A. Shipp; including Sons of Ham, In Dahomey (1903), and Abyssinia (1906) among other works. In these musicals she portrayed mainly supporting character roles and was usually a featured singer and/or dancer. However, she portrayed the title role and the main protagonist in the Cook, Dunbar, and Shipp musical My Tom-Boy Girl (1905).

As a dancer, Williams was particularly associated with the cakewalk, and a sketch of her alongside her future husband in that dance was depicted on the front cover of the original sheet music for Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899. She retired from the stage in 1908, but continued to provide support for her husband and his career. While the Williamses had no biological children of their own, the couple became the adoptive parents of three of Lottie's nieces after the death of her sister in 1913. She died at her home in Harlem in 1929.

Early life Lottie Williams was born with the name Charlotte Louise Johnson in Chicago in 1866. She was the daughter of Lewis Henry Johnson and Emily Junior, and soon after this event she moved from Chicago to New York City.

Career

In most of the Cook, Dunbar, and Shipp musicals Lottie was featured as a singer and dancer in supporting character roles. However, in My Tom-Boy Girl she was given the part of the central protagonist of Josie the 'Tom-Boy Girl'. A comedic part, the musical told the tale of a down and out New York City papergirl who unexpectedly inherits a fortune tied to an estate in Virginia. After moving into her inherited mansion, her sister Lillian is kidnapped for ransom and in order to win her back she disguises herself as the miscreant "Ragged Joe" to infiltrate the gang of criminals who have taken her captive. This particular show toured nationally before reaching New York City where it first played at the Metropolis Theatre in the Bronx prior to appearing on Broadway at the Fourteenth Street Theatre in May 1905. From left to right, performers Hattie McIntosh, George Walker, Aida Overton Walker, Bert Williams, and Lottie Williams performing the cake walk dance in the 1903 Broadway production of In Dahomey. Later life and death In 1908 health issues forced Williams to retire from the stage, and after this she dedicated herself to supporting her husband's career behind the scenes, and taking care of Bert's elderly parents who moved from California into Bert and Lottie's home in Harlem. and the couple welcomed the children into their new home as their adoptive parents.

Bert Williams died in 1922, and Lottie Williams died seven years later on March 17, 1929, at their home at 2309 Seventh Avenue in Harlem. She is buried next to her husband in Woodlawn Cemetery.