Zeke Clements
American country musician, songwriter (1911-1994)

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".
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.
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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.
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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.