Basic Information
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Otis Lamont Williams |
| Known as | Otis Lamont (son of Otis Williams) |
| Parents | Otis Williams (father), Josephine Rogers (mother) |
| Birth | Unknown (public records not widely available) |
| Death | Reported as a workplace fatality — year variously cited as 1983 or 1985 |
| Occupation | Construction worker (reported) |
| Siblings | None reported; often described as the only child |
| Public profile | Private life; remembered mainly in the context of his father’s biography |
When I first tripped over the name Otis Lamont Williams in the pages of Motown lore, it felt like finding a hidden track on a vinyl LP — there, tucked underneath the glossy sleeve of star-making machinery, a soft, private song: one short life, barely audible in the roar of the arena. That’s the tone of most records about him: quiet, intimate, framed by his father’s very public arc as the founder and long-time leader of The Temptations.
A life briefly lit
Otis Lamont Williams does not have a marquee of headlines to his name — no gold records, no solo tours, no glossy magazine features. Instead, the contours of his life are sketched in brief, factual strokes: he was the son of Otis Williams and Josephine Rogers, described as their only child, who worked in construction and who died in a workplace accident when he was young. The year of his passing sits like a small, stubborn question mark in many retellings — some accounts say 1983, others 1985 — and that gap matters because it’s the difference between an early-20s life and a slightly older young adulthood; it changes the cadence of memory.
I like to think of him as the kind of person who would have been content to build something unseen — a wall that would shelter a family, a beam that would hold up a future — and who lived outside the spotlight by choice or by fate. In the cinematic reel of Motown, he’s the cutaway shot: a hand on a banister, a cigarette left in an ashtray, a photograph in a wallet.
Family portrait — the people who orbit his name
Family is the gravitational field here, and the list of relations reads like a small constellation centered on a towering figure: Otis Williams.
| Family Member | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Otis Williams (father) | Founder and enduring leader of The Temptations — a Motown icon whose career stretches from the 1950s into contemporary revivals. |
| Josephine Rogers (mother) | First wife of Otis Williams and mother to Otis Lamont; part of the early family life often referenced in biographies. |
| Ann Cain | A name that appears in Otis Williams’s personal timeline as a later partner; part of the broader family history. |
| Arleata “Goldie” Williams (née Carter) | A later spouse in Otis Williams’s life, connected to the extended family narrative. |
| Elan Carter (step-family) | Through marriage and step-relations — a figure who appears when tracing Otis Williams’s family later in life. |
Introducing them feels, to me, like casting a film: Otis Williams is the lead — the man with the microphone and the long career; Josephine Rogers is the early co-star, the maternal figure who anchors the private reel; the others enter in supporting turns, shaping the family story in ways both public and private. I say “introducing” because most references to Otis Lamont are tethered to these names — not to the son’s own public projects, but to the family DNA that defined his quiet orbit.
Career & circumstances
If careers are a kind of signature, Otis Lamont’s signature is modest: construction. That work suggests steadiness, a trade learned with hands and calluses rather than applause. It also suggests that fame did not hand him a stage; he built, literally, and lived in the honest, noisy craft of building sites. The tragedy that concludes his life — a fatal accident on the job — is often noted succinctly in biographical afterwords, the kind of sentence that redirects a narrative away from possibility and into loss.
By contrast, his father’s career is vast and thunderous: founding member of The Temptations, chart-topping hits, stage and screen treatments, and the continuing stewardship of a storied musical legacy. That public life throws a long shadow — not to diminish Otis Lamont’s own choices, but to explain why the son appears less as a headline and more as a poignant footnote in a longer story about fame, family, and sacrifice.
Numbers, dates, and the stubborn facts
— Death year: 1983 or 1985 (discrepancies exist across biographies).
— Public net worth: none reported for Otis Lamont; his life was private, with no public financial footprint.
— Family size: described as an only child in most accounts.
— Occupation: construction worker at time of death.
Those figures are small keys; they open only the first door. The rest of the house — his friendships, his private dreams, the daily hours he spent on scaffolds — remains in shadow, visible only in the way people remember him when they remember his father.
The human echo
If there’s a cinematic line I keep returning to, it’s this: families of stars often contain ordinary, indelible lives that history treats like B-sides — crucial, resonant, and rarely played in public. Otis Lamont embodies that B-side: a personal story that, while not broadcast from marquees, still alters the melody of a family album. In conversation about fame and loss, his name appears as a quiet punctuation mark; in biographies of The Temptations, he is the private reality that anchors the myth.
I imagine, sometimes, a scene lifted from a classic Motown movie: the camera tracking past a rehearsal door into a small kitchen where a young man irons his work shirt, then offers it to his mother with a tired joke. That’s the image that sticks for me — intimacy and labor, the offstage life of those whose names sit just off the marquee.
FAQ
Who was Otis Lamont Williams?
Otis Lamont Williams was the son of Temptations founder Otis Williams and Josephine Rogers, described as their only child who worked in construction and died young in a workplace accident.
When did Otis Lamont Williams die?
Accounts vary — some list 1983, others 1985 — and the precise year remains inconsistently reported in public records.
What was his occupation?
He is reported to have been a construction worker at the time of his death, not a public performer or recording artist.
Did he have siblings?
No siblings are commonly reported; most references describe him as the only child of Otis Williams and Josephine Rogers.
Was there any public net worth recorded for him?
No reliable public net-worth estimate exists for Otis Lamont Williams; he did not have a public financial profile.
How is he remembered in public media?
He is usually remembered in the context of his father’s biographies and interviews — a private life mentioned as part of the broader story of family, loss, and the cost of a life lived close to the spotlight.
