Real name: Will Arthur Morris

Born: 26 September 1933 Temple, Texas, USA
Died: 26 December 2021 Paramount, California, USA

African-American country music singer, recording artist, songwriter and television host. Performed on The Big D Jamboree, Louisiana Hayride and The Saturday Night Jamboree radio programs in the 1950s. His demos generated interest and he went to Nashville in 1955, but when record executives saw he was black they balked, one telling him he was afraid "blacks won't buy it because it's country and country won't buy it because you're black."

He went to California. There he recorded for Adkorp Records, toured with his band, The Trailblazers, and wrote songs for Buck Owens' publishing company.

He was the great-great-grandson of Charley Willis, a black cowboy born a slave in 1850, who is credited with teaching the famous Chisolm Trail cattle drive song "Goodbye Old Paint" in the 1880s to Jess Morris, who recorded it for Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress in 1950.

Artie Morris was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in 2018.