{{Short description|American jazz saxophonist (1919–2019)}} {{Infobox musical artist |name = Joe McQueen |image = |caption = |background = non_vocal_instrumentalist |birth_name = Joe Leandrew McQueen |birth_date = {{birth date|1919|05|30|mf=yes}} |birth_place = Ponder, Texas, U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|2019|12|7|1919|05|30|mf=yes}} |death_place = Ogden, Utah, U.S. |genre = Jazz |occupation = Musician |instrument = Saxophone |years_active = 1930s–2019 |label = }} '''Joe McQueen''' (May 30, 1919 – December 7, 2019) was an American jazz saxophonist.
== Biography== McQueen was born in Ponder, Texas, and raised in Ardmore, Oklahoma.<ref name="Saal">{{cite web |last1=Saal |first1=Mark |title=About to turn 100, Joe McQueen gets a new sax — and a state proclamation |url=https://www.standard.net/entertainment/music/about-to-turn-joe-mcqueen-gets-a-new-sax-and/article_01db1d9f-1bac-55b6-8e8a-64eebaea55cd.html |website=Standard-Examiner |accessdate=6 July 2019 |date=9 February 2019 |archive-date=5 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605145745/https://www.standard.net/entertainment/music/about-to-turn-joe-mcqueen-gets-a-new-sax-and/article_01db1d9f-1bac-55b6-8e8a-64eebaea55cd.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> His father left when he was a young boy and his mother died when he was 14 years old, after which he lived with his grandparents.<ref name=depoopplaying saxophone<ref name="Saal" /> He was introduced to the saxophone by his cousin, Herschel Evans, a saxophonist with Count Basie during the 1930s.<ref name="WintzGlasrud">{{cite book |last1=Wintz|first1=Cary D.|last2=Glasrud|first2=Bruce A.|title=The Harlem Renaissance in the American West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CGpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA159 |accessdate=6 July 2019|date=22 May 2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-64911-0|pages=159–}}</ref> He developed a relationship with Thelma, whom he met on a dance floor in Ardmore, and they married on June 10, 1944.<ref name=death/>
McQueen toured with bands throughout the United States. While passing through Ogden, Utah, with his wife Thelma in 1945, the leader of the band McQueen was in at the time took the group's money,<ref name="Diamond" /> later losing it while gambling on the way to Las Vegas.<ref name="WintzGlasrud" />
McQueen and wife Thelma decided to remain in Ogden.<ref name="Saal" /> He performed with jazz musicians when they stopped in Utah, such as Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, Paul Gonsalves, Lester Young, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, and Ray Charles.<ref name=death/><ref name="uvu bio">{{cite web |title=Joe McQueen |url=http://www.uvu.edu/chss/mlk/docs/jm.pdf |accessdate=6 July 2019 |format=.pdf |date=17 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017080841/http://www.uvu.edu/chss/mlk/docs/jm.pdf |archive-date=2015-10-17 }}</ref>
In 1962 he played in Idaho Falls, Idaho, with Hoagy Carmichael.
As he approached the age of 100, he was still performing.<ref name="Saal" />
==Awards and honours== McQueen was the subject of the documentary film ''King of O-Town''.<ref name="uvu bio" /> In 2002, the governor of Utah established April 18 as Joe McQueen Day.<ref name="Diamond">{{cite web |last1=Diamond |first1=Austen |title=Joe McQueen Day |url=https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/joe-mcqueen-day/Content?oid=2287434 |website=Salt Lake City Weekly |accessdate=6 July 2019 |date=18 April 2013}}</ref> In 2019, the Utah legislature honored his 100th birthday.<ref name="Saal" />
==Health and death== McQueen was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1969 after years of smoking. He underwent surgery and quit playing for several years.<ref name=death/>
McQueen died on the morning of December 7, 2019, at the age of 100. He was survived by his wife of seventy-five years, Thelma.<ref name="obit">{{cite web |last1=Scholl |first1=Jacob |title=Ogden jazz legend Joe McQueen dies at the age of 100 |url=https://www.standard.net/breaking/ogden-jazz-legend-joe-mcqueen-dies-at-the-age-of/article_0466d5a6-d963-51f2-8b54-3c4a138e499d.html/ |date=December 7, 2019 |website=Ogden Standard-Examiner |access-date=December 9, 2019 |archive-date=December 9, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209203450/https://www.standard.net/breaking/ogden-jazz-legend-joe-mcqueen-dies-at-the-age-of/article_0466d5a6-d963-51f2-8b54-3c4a138e499d.html/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="death">{{cite web|url=https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/12/08/jazz-legend-joe-mcqueen/|title=Jazz legend Joe McQueen, the 'coolest cat in town,' dies at 100 after pioneering Utah's music and civil rights scene|date=December 7, 2019|website=The Salt Lake Tribune}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McQueen, Joe}} Category:1919 births Category:2019 deaths Category:20th-century American male musicians Category:20th-century American saxophonists Category:21st-century American male musicians Category:21st-century American saxophonists Category:African-American jazz musicians Category:African-American centenarians Category:American jazz saxophonists Category:American male saxophonists Category:Jazz musicians from Oklahoma Category:American male jazz musicians Category:Musicians from Ogden, Utah Category:People from Ardmore, Oklahoma Category:People from Denton County, Texas Category:Jazz musicians from Texas Category:Weber State University faculty Category:American men centenarians Category:20th-century African-American musicians Category:21st-century African-American musicians