CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

[eizzie]

CONGRATULATIONS TO OTIS WILLIAMS, FOUNDER OF THE TEMPTATIONS AND TO WILLIAM "SMOKEY" ROBINSON WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WRITING MANY OF THE EARLY TEMPTATIONS HITS. BOTH OF THESE MEN WERE HONORED YESTERDAY AND RECIEVED HONORARY DOCTORATE DEGREES FROM PRESTIGIOUS BLACK COLLEGES FOR THEIR MUSIC CONTRIBUTIONS. OTIS RECEIVED A HONORARY DOCTORATE DEGREE FROM TUSKEEGEE INTSITUTE IN ALAMABA AND SMOKEY RECEIVED AN HONORARY DOCTORATE DEGREE FROM HOWARD UNIVERSITY IN WASHINGTON, DC. CONGRATUALTIONS "DOCTER" WILLIAMS AND "DOCTER" ROBINSON.

[eizzie]

OOPS. I MADE A MISTAKE IN THE COLLEGE FROM WHERE OTIS RECEIVED HIS HONARARY DOCTORATE. THE COLLEGE WAS NOT TUSKEEGEE. IT WAS STILLMAN COLLEGE IN TUSGALOOSA, ALAMABA. POSTED BELOW IS AN ARTICLE ABOUT IT. AGAIN, CONGRATULATIONS OTIS. I GUESS I SHOULD SAY "DR." WILLIAMS.


Stillman College
2006 Commencement
Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree
Recipients
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Candidate for the Doctor of Humane Letters Degree
Otis Williams was born October 30, 1941 to Hazel
Louise Williams and Otis Miles in Texarkana, Texas. As my
parents were not married, and Hazel was only a girl of 16
when he was born, he was raised by my paternal
Grandmother Gooden, with plenty of involvement by my
maternal Grandmother Lucinda Eliga.
In 1951, Hazel brought him to Detroit, Michigan to
live with her and her husband Edgar Little. He grew up with
a younger half-brother Allan and half-sister Denise. . The
other force in his life was music. The music scene in Detroit
was exploding with doo-wop groups on every corner and he
spent countless hours watching the likes of Lavern Baker, Royal Jokers, Chuck Berry, the
Nightcaps, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers appearing at the Fox Theatre. But it was
watching the Cadillacs in their loose light suits and stepping routines—and the effect it had
on the audience – that made up his mind up. Singing is what he wanted to do. Berry Gordy
heard The Distants perform and told us how much he like them and that if things changed
with our current management, to give him a call. Shortly there after, The Distants decided to
part company with their manager Ms. Johnnie Mae Matthews. Unfortunately the contract
they signed gave her ownership to the name The Distants, so we were a group with no
name. Close to that time, another rising group, The Primes had a recording deal that fell
apart that left Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams without a contract. So now a line up
featuring Otis, Melvin, Al, Eddie and Paul went to Hitsville (the two story house where
Motown was headquartered) to audition as The Elgins (like the watch) After the audition,
Berry Gordy said he wanted to sign us—but change the name! They would have had to
anyway because there was a group already known as The Elgins. The year was 1961 and The
Temptations were born!
Life has a way of twisting and turning. Otis was focusing on working with The
Temptations, my steady girlfriend, Josephine Rogers, told me she was pregnant. We married,
and in 1962 my only child, Otis Lamont Williams, was born. While it was exciting to be
recording and traveling for Motown, their first few singles did not hit big. They even
recorded a tune as “The Pirates” to see if a new name would make a difference. Thankfully,
that was not the issue and we went back to being known as The Temptations. But it did not
help my marriage and in 1964 his marriage ended with Josephine. But there were also
changes with The Temptations. Al Bryant’s behavior resulted with him to be asked to leave
the group. He was replaced by David Ruffin. Our next single, “The Way You Do The
Things You Do,” (1964) charted at number #11 and everything began to change. “My
Girl”(recorded in December of 1964) was our first #1 single –selling a million copies, and
one of my all time favorites. To be the first all-male group for Motown, to perform in the
BBC The Sound of Motown special – the show that introduced Motown to the world; to
help lead the way for black artists to experience crossover success, for our NBC special with
the Supremes to be the first Black Television Special in history, to have our first Grammy
Award also be Motown’s first (Cloud Nine , 1969) and to top it off, to meet my second
wife, Ann Cain, the following year. The Temptations success has a lot to do with our ability
to be in tune with the times, but resist the urge to chase trends. When we finished taping the
1983 Motown 25 show, we went right back to finishing our Back to Basics album. And I
married for a third time, to Goldie. He’s taken the good with the bad. While being a
Temptation has allowed him to record with some of the greatest singers and musicians in the
country, perform at the White House, travel the world, sing for Mohammad Ali, even dance
with Emelda Marcos, it didn’t shelter me from the dark side of life: power struggles within
the group, dealing with David Ruffin’s drug problem as well Paul Williams’ drinking and
suicide, my mother and son’s early death, Melvin’s failing health, and Martin Luther King’s
assassination all had an effect on me. The Temptations were inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, but our story doesn’t end there. 1989 also gave us a #10 R&B hit
with “Special.” We followed that up with “Soul to Soul” #12 in 1990 and “The Jones” - #41
in 1991. Although they had left the group years prior, the 1991 deaths of David Ruffin and
Eddie Kendricks was viewed by many people as the end of The Temptations. But The
Temptations have always been about a sound; straight up soul with 5 leads and a philosophy;
to keep on. So we sought out singers who embraced both and went forward. For Lovers
Only, a collection of standards in 1995, attracted a new generation of fans. It was a
sentimental favorite of his as it was the last record he did with Melvin Franklin. He died later
that year. 1998 was a watershed year for The Temptations and an example of the balancing
act they maintain to this day, on one hand our NBC mini series The Temptations, which
chronicled our early days and rise to fame, was number one in it’s time slot (against Monday
Night Football and Jurassic Park no less!), and won an Emmy.

[Temptfan]

Congrats to DR. WILLIAMS and DR. ROBINSON!!!

[Dlove2]

I would say congrats too, but my account still hasn't been activated! Yo moderator!