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Zeke Clements

American country musician, songwriter (1911-1994)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2025
Entity authorityQ187216
Source-derived summary

Zeke Clements (September 6, 1911 – June 4, 1994) was an American country musician often dressed in a Western outfit. He was known as "The Dixie Yodeler."

Biography

Clements was born near Empire, Alabama. In 1928, his career began when he joined Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys touring show and was signed to the National Barn Dance at WLS in Chicago. In 1930, he performed on WSM Grand Ole Opry for the first time. In 1933, he became a member of the Bronco Busters, led by Texas Ruby. Zeke Clements and the Bronco Busters became members of the Opry in the 1930s. In the 1930s and 1940s, Clements appeared as a singing cowboy in several of Charles Starrett's B-Westerns. During this time, he also provided the voice of Bashful, the yodeling dwarf, in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Clements formed the Western Swing Gang and returned to the Opry in 1939. He had his first major country hit with "Smoke on the Water".

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Zeke Clements” as american country musician, songwriter (1911-1994). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Zeke, Clements and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1911, 1994, 1928, 1930—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1911-09-06. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Zeke, Clements and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Zeke Clements”, the useful work is to connect “american country musician, songwriter (1911-1994)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q187216. VIAF identifies the subject as 80057819. The Library of Congress control number is no98033879. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1911, 1994, 1928 and 1930.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Zeke Clements”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Zeke Clements primary sources, Zeke Clements archive and Zeke research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Zeke Clements”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Zeke Clements” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.