Post by kalisa2 on Jun 30, 2004 22:33:10 GMT -5
DETROIT ~ Paul Williams, 34, one of the original Temptations,
was buried here August 24th. He died anonymously, barely two blocks from the Motown offices where he and the other Temptations cut their first record ten years ago.
Police found William’s’ body late Friday night, August 17th. He
was clad only in swimming trunks and was slumped over the steering wheel of his car. There was a gun in his hand, the hand in his lap, a bullet in his forehead. In the auto’s trunk was a gold bag engraved: PAUL WILLIAMS - TEMPTATIONS. A fingerprint check confirmed his identity. The Detroit coroner’s office ruled suicide.
Williams is survived by his wife, Mary, five children under 12 and his parents, Rufus and Sophie Williams.
A strong baritone, Williams’ voice was a familiar one on such
Temptations songs as “The Way You Do The Things You Do”, the group’s first hit in 1964. And by all accounts he was far and away the best dancer the group ever had.
Beset by personal problems, Williams left the Temptations in March 1971, but he continued to draw a salary as an adviser and supervisor of the group’s choreography. His problems mounted last year when he and his wife separated. He also was said to have owed $80,000 in taxes, and a doctor said he had treated Williams for alcoholism. Friends said that at his worst a couple of years ago, Williams was putting away two fifths of Cognac a day.
Ironically, those who knew Williams insisted that in recent months he had attained his best physical and mental shape of the past several years. A couple of years ago he was spending more time in hospitals than onstage, and finally, on doctor’s orders and with his own consent, he was replaced in the group. However, two days before his death he was sitting in the office of his old manager, Don Foster, talking eagerly about how he was going to help the Tempts work out dance routines for their Las Vegas opening, scheduled for October.
Eddie Kendricks - a former Temptation who is now a Motown solo singer - said Paul also had gotten a band together, done some recording and had been out talking contract with several companies. Most importantly, said Kendricks, Williams had apparently overcome his drinking problem.
Williams was born July 21st, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama. He began singing in the choir at the Macedonia Baptist Church, where his father sang with a gospel group.
His mother, Mrs. Sophie Williams, said: “My boy was lacking just two grades to finish high school, but he wouldn’t do it. He grew up singing songs with Eddie on the porch and in church. They had music deep inside, and they had to find a way to get it out to the world. I never blamed them for that - but I never thought it would come to this.”
Williams’ funeral was held at the tried Stone Baptist Church in Detroit, where hundreds of persons packed in and around the building. Teenagers moved through the throng snapping photos of celebrities: Gladys Knight, songwriters Eddie and Brian Holland and Yvonne Fair, a Motown singer and actress.
Eulogizing Williams, Mrs. Esther Edwards, Motown executive vice-president, said: “In Western and Eastern Europe, in Africa, in Asia - all over the world - young men sing in groups now in a fashion created by the Temptations. They dance with choreography that so closely matches the Temptations’ one might think Paul had personally tutored them.”
Past and current Temptations joined the hundreds of mourners to pay their respects. David Ruffin, Kendricks, Damon Harris, Richard Streeter Otis Williams, David English, Dennis Edwards and the group’s musical director, Cornelious Grant, were pallbearers.
Ruffin, former Temptations lead singer, was overcome by emotion while singing “The Impossible Dream”. Other Temptations spontaneously left their seats, joined Ruffin in the pulpit to complete the song.
“Despite the fact that we weren’t together, we were close friends,” said Mrs. Mary Williams, who said she had spoken with her estranged husband the morning of his death.
“He was in a very good mood,” she recalled. “I had just seen him Thursday. He loved his children very much and would see them almost every day. With the exception of Eddie Kendricks, however, he had lost contact with most of his friends.
Before the funeral, Kendricks, reed-thin and in a bathrobe, sat on an
apartment sofa with a phone on his lap. Calls were coming in from all over the country - some from business associates, other from friends offering condolences.
A few minutes earlier a giant spray of flowers had arrived from Diana Ross, who was on the West Coast.
With each phone sympathizer Kendricks’ response was quick and almost curt: “Don’t worry about me. I’m cool. Worry about Paul.”
(The past few days were not good for Kendricks. His car had been stolen, and he and Ruffin along with Cornelius Grant were robbed of $800 outside Grant’s home in Southfield, a Detroit suburb. Kendricks insisted, however, on keeping the talk centered on Paul.)
The first time I met him, he threw a bucked of mop water on me,” he said. “I lived four houses down from him in Birmingham, and after we settled that incident with a fistfight, we became best friends. He was the first to discover we had music in our heads. He’d get records of [Clyde] McPhatter, the Five Royales, The Midnighters, Little Willie John and then get me to copy them along with him.”
“When we struck off north, we were about 17 and had just enough money for a one-way ticket to Cleveland. We washed dishes and slept in bathtubs there until we melt Elton Jenkins {Milton Jenkins?} who brought us over to Detroit and said he’d manage our careers. He’s dead now too.
“One day when we were living on the East Side, just off John R., Jenkins brought these four girls around for us to meet. Paul and I were calling ourselves the Primes at the time, so it wasn’t long before Diana Ross and her three friends were calling themselves the Primettes.
“Later we met Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin, who are still with the group. We got hold of Elbert {Eldridge} Bryant, and the five of us began doing shows. Somebody thought up the name “Temptations”, we recorded “The Way You Do the Things You Do”, and before we knew it, we were on our way.
“We probably rang up more consecutive hit record in the middle and late Sixties than any other male group in history. But then things started to sour. None of us seemed to be getting out of the group as much as we were putting into it. Paul was drinking and running around. Suddenly, he didn’t have his moves anymore. We tried not to notice for a while, but it was too late: He was a sick man.
“I’ve seen Paul Williams every way imaginable - drunk, ecstatic, furious, down and out. Every time he dropped I would be there to help him back up. He would have done it for me. His comeback was my fight. I thought I was winning until they called me.
“I’ll never really understand how he could have done it. The Paul Williams I saw last week was the one I grew up with in Alabama. I
thought sure he was back to his old self. But I guess in the end even I didn’t really know him.”
was buried here August 24th. He died anonymously, barely two blocks from the Motown offices where he and the other Temptations cut their first record ten years ago.
Police found William’s’ body late Friday night, August 17th. He
was clad only in swimming trunks and was slumped over the steering wheel of his car. There was a gun in his hand, the hand in his lap, a bullet in his forehead. In the auto’s trunk was a gold bag engraved: PAUL WILLIAMS - TEMPTATIONS. A fingerprint check confirmed his identity. The Detroit coroner’s office ruled suicide.
Williams is survived by his wife, Mary, five children under 12 and his parents, Rufus and Sophie Williams.
A strong baritone, Williams’ voice was a familiar one on such
Temptations songs as “The Way You Do The Things You Do”, the group’s first hit in 1964. And by all accounts he was far and away the best dancer the group ever had.
Beset by personal problems, Williams left the Temptations in March 1971, but he continued to draw a salary as an adviser and supervisor of the group’s choreography. His problems mounted last year when he and his wife separated. He also was said to have owed $80,000 in taxes, and a doctor said he had treated Williams for alcoholism. Friends said that at his worst a couple of years ago, Williams was putting away two fifths of Cognac a day.
Ironically, those who knew Williams insisted that in recent months he had attained his best physical and mental shape of the past several years. A couple of years ago he was spending more time in hospitals than onstage, and finally, on doctor’s orders and with his own consent, he was replaced in the group. However, two days before his death he was sitting in the office of his old manager, Don Foster, talking eagerly about how he was going to help the Tempts work out dance routines for their Las Vegas opening, scheduled for October.
Eddie Kendricks - a former Temptation who is now a Motown solo singer - said Paul also had gotten a band together, done some recording and had been out talking contract with several companies. Most importantly, said Kendricks, Williams had apparently overcome his drinking problem.
Williams was born July 21st, 1939, in Birmingham, Alabama. He began singing in the choir at the Macedonia Baptist Church, where his father sang with a gospel group.
His mother, Mrs. Sophie Williams, said: “My boy was lacking just two grades to finish high school, but he wouldn’t do it. He grew up singing songs with Eddie on the porch and in church. They had music deep inside, and they had to find a way to get it out to the world. I never blamed them for that - but I never thought it would come to this.”
Williams’ funeral was held at the tried Stone Baptist Church in Detroit, where hundreds of persons packed in and around the building. Teenagers moved through the throng snapping photos of celebrities: Gladys Knight, songwriters Eddie and Brian Holland and Yvonne Fair, a Motown singer and actress.
Eulogizing Williams, Mrs. Esther Edwards, Motown executive vice-president, said: “In Western and Eastern Europe, in Africa, in Asia - all over the world - young men sing in groups now in a fashion created by the Temptations. They dance with choreography that so closely matches the Temptations’ one might think Paul had personally tutored them.”
Past and current Temptations joined the hundreds of mourners to pay their respects. David Ruffin, Kendricks, Damon Harris, Richard Streeter Otis Williams, David English, Dennis Edwards and the group’s musical director, Cornelious Grant, were pallbearers.
Ruffin, former Temptations lead singer, was overcome by emotion while singing “The Impossible Dream”. Other Temptations spontaneously left their seats, joined Ruffin in the pulpit to complete the song.
“Despite the fact that we weren’t together, we were close friends,” said Mrs. Mary Williams, who said she had spoken with her estranged husband the morning of his death.
“He was in a very good mood,” she recalled. “I had just seen him Thursday. He loved his children very much and would see them almost every day. With the exception of Eddie Kendricks, however, he had lost contact with most of his friends.
Before the funeral, Kendricks, reed-thin and in a bathrobe, sat on an
apartment sofa with a phone on his lap. Calls were coming in from all over the country - some from business associates, other from friends offering condolences.
A few minutes earlier a giant spray of flowers had arrived from Diana Ross, who was on the West Coast.
With each phone sympathizer Kendricks’ response was quick and almost curt: “Don’t worry about me. I’m cool. Worry about Paul.”
(The past few days were not good for Kendricks. His car had been stolen, and he and Ruffin along with Cornelius Grant were robbed of $800 outside Grant’s home in Southfield, a Detroit suburb. Kendricks insisted, however, on keeping the talk centered on Paul.)
The first time I met him, he threw a bucked of mop water on me,” he said. “I lived four houses down from him in Birmingham, and after we settled that incident with a fistfight, we became best friends. He was the first to discover we had music in our heads. He’d get records of [Clyde] McPhatter, the Five Royales, The Midnighters, Little Willie John and then get me to copy them along with him.”
“When we struck off north, we were about 17 and had just enough money for a one-way ticket to Cleveland. We washed dishes and slept in bathtubs there until we melt Elton Jenkins {Milton Jenkins?} who brought us over to Detroit and said he’d manage our careers. He’s dead now too.
“One day when we were living on the East Side, just off John R., Jenkins brought these four girls around for us to meet. Paul and I were calling ourselves the Primes at the time, so it wasn’t long before Diana Ross and her three friends were calling themselves the Primettes.
“Later we met Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin, who are still with the group. We got hold of Elbert {Eldridge} Bryant, and the five of us began doing shows. Somebody thought up the name “Temptations”, we recorded “The Way You Do the Things You Do”, and before we knew it, we were on our way.
“We probably rang up more consecutive hit record in the middle and late Sixties than any other male group in history. But then things started to sour. None of us seemed to be getting out of the group as much as we were putting into it. Paul was drinking and running around. Suddenly, he didn’t have his moves anymore. We tried not to notice for a while, but it was too late: He was a sick man.
“I’ve seen Paul Williams every way imaginable - drunk, ecstatic, furious, down and out. Every time he dropped I would be there to help him back up. He would have done it for me. His comeback was my fight. I thought I was winning until they called me.
“I’ll never really understand how he could have done it. The Paul Williams I saw last week was the one I grew up with in Alabama. I
thought sure he was back to his old self. But I guess in the end even I didn’t really know him.”
If we are to believe Eddie and Mrs. Williams comments about Paul being in a good mood the last time they spoke to him I am wondering if Paul was bipolar or was he in a deep depression and coupled with the fact that he was an alcoholic cause him to lose his sanity for a brief moment when he shot himself. I wish things would have turned out better for him he was so talented and he seemed like the nicest person. 
I guess one has to resort to that when their own life is boring,they gotta make up BULL SHOT! Good part about it is REAL TEMPTS FANS know better. 
