LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Joe Williams, whose smooth baritone and collaborations with Count Basie won him acclaim as one of the great voices of jazz, collapsed and died on a city street after walking away from a hospital. He was 80.
Williams apparently died of natural causes, Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said. He had walked several miles Monday and was a few blocks from home.His wife, Jillean, said he had been admitted to Sunrise Hospital a week ago for a respiratory ailment. The hospital reported Williams missing several hours before his body was found.
Singer Robert Goulet said: "At the age of 80, Joe could sing better than most people at the age of 20. He was one of the greatest jazz and blues singers of all time, and he was such a good man, too."
Williams' appeal stretched to other mediums: He played Bill Cosby's father-in-law, Grandpa Al, on "The Cosby Show" in the 1980s. He and Cosby were friends, and the childhood memories Grandpa Al spun on the show were his own from Chicago.
But his fame was in jazz. Williams became a sensation in 1955 when he recorded "Everyday I Have the Blues" with Basie, and the two were together for seven years. Williams repeatedly was chosen the top male jazz singer in readers' polls for Downbeat and other magazines.
"I'm most pleasantly surprised at what still comes out of my throat," Williams said in 1986. "I'm thrilled and thankful. I remember Edward (Duke Ellington) saying, 'I'm just a messenger boy for God.' Much of what we do comes through us. I thank God for what comes through me."
Born Joseph Goreed on Dec. 12, 1918, in Cordele, Ga., the entertainer was raised by his mother and grandmother. He found fun in playing the piano and singing the spirituals he heard at the Methodist church where his mother was the organist.