Page "Joe "King" Oliver" Paragraph 6

The gravesite of Joe " King " Oliver in Woodlawn CemeteryThe Great Depression brought hardship to Oliver.

He lost his life savings to a collapsed bank in Chicago, and he struggled to keep his band together through a series of hand-to-mouth gigs until the group broke up and Oliver was stranded in Savannah, Georgia, where he worked as a janitor at Wimberly's Recreation Hall ( 526-528 West Broad Street ); "... he died there of arteriosclerosis, too broke to afford treatment.

" Oliver died in poverty at a rooming house ( 508 Montgomery Street ), on April 10, 1938.

He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NY, where he would be joined by other jazz giants such as Coleman Hawkins, Lionel Hampton, W. C. Handy, Milt Jackson, Max Roach, and Miles Davis, among others, all of whom owe a great debt to " Papa Joe ".