Lottie Williams (actress, born 1866)

[1] 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.

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.

[8] With the company she appeared in several musicals crafted by composer Will Marion Cook, lyricist Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the playwright Jesse A. Shipp; including A Lucky Coon,[9] The Policy Players (as Miss Gushington),[9][10] Sons of Ham (as Gabby Slaughtry),[11] In Dahomey (as Mrs Stringer),[12] My Tom-Boy Girl (as Josie, a.k.a.

[16] In In Dahomey she was featured as a cakewalk dancer,[17] and her character of the widow Mrs Stringer was a comedic part in which she portrayed a fashion editor for the newspaper Beanville Agitator who was also a seller of "forsaken" sewing patterns.

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.

[22] To make room for their expanding family the Williamses purchased a larger four-story brownstone in Harlem,[21] and the couple welcomed the children into their new home as their adoptive parents.

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 .
1899 sheet music publication of Scott Joplin 's " Maple Leaf Rag ". Bert and Lottie Williams (left), and George W. and Aida Overton Walker (right) are dancing the cakewalk in the image depicted on the front cover. [ 5 ]
Photograph of Lottie Williams published in The New York Age in 1908, the year of her retirement.