Nat King Cole - Personal Life

Personal Life

There has been some confusion on Cole's actual year of birth. Cole himself used four different dates on official documents: 1915, 1916, 1917, and 1919; however, Nathaniel is listed with his parents and older siblings in the 1920 U.S. Federal census for Montgomery, Alabama, Ward 7, with his age given as nine months old. Since this is a contemporary record, it is very likely he was born in 1919. This is also consistent with the 1930 census which finds him at age 11 with his family in Chicago, Illinois, Ward 3. In the 1920 census, the race of all members of the family (Ed, Perlina, Eddie M., Edward D., Evelina and Nathaniel Coles) is recorded as mulatto. Cole's birth year is also listed as 1919 on the Nat King Cole Society's web site.

Around the time Cole launched his singing career, he entered into Freemasonry, being raised in January 1944 in the Thomas Waller Lodge No. 49 in California, the lodge being named after fellow Prince Hall mason and jazz musician Fats Waller.

Cole's first marriage, to Nadine Robinson, ended in 1948. On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), just six days after his divorce became final, Cole married singer Maria Hawkins Ellington (although Maria had sung with Duke Ellington's band, she was not related to Duke Ellington). The Coles were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. They had five children: Natalie (born 1950) (Watts 1), who herself would go on to have a successful career as a singer; adopted daughter Carole (1944–2009, the daughter of Maria's sister), who died of lung cancer at 64; adopted son Nat Kelly Cole (1959–1995), who died of AIDS at 36; and twin daughters Casey and Timolin (born 1961).

Cole had affairs throughout his marriages. By the time he developed lung cancer, he was estranged from his wife Maria and living with actress Gunilla Hutton, best known as the second Billie Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction (1965–1966) and also notable as a regular cast member (Nurse Goodbody) on "Hee Haw". But Cole was with Maria during his illness, and she stayed with him until his death. In an interview, Maria expressed no lingering resentment over his affairs. Instead, she emphasized his musical legacy and the class he exhibited in all other aspects of his life. Cole was a heavy smoker rarely seen without a cigarette in his hand. After an operation for stomach ulcers in 1953, he had been advised to stop smoking but did not do so. In late 1964 his cancer was diagnosed as advanced. After unsuccessful medical treatments, he died on February 15, 1965, at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California.

An official United States postage stamp featuring Cole's likeness was issued in 1994.

In 2000, Cole was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the major influences on early rock and roll.