LeRoy Myers (November 10, 1919 – April 26, 2004) was an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

tap dancer Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...

and manager of the Copasetics. He was born in

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City, Philadelphia, Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

and learned to tap dance on the street corners of Philadelphia. When

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid black entertainer in the United States during the first half of the 20 ...

died in 1949, LeRoy Myers and some close friends were inspired to form the Copasetics, named after Bill Robinsons' favorite expression, "Everything is Copasetic." The Copasetics was a fraternity of black entertainers that were influential in the revival of tap dancing in the late 1970s through the 1980s. LeRoy Myers was elected as the club's first president. The original membership included

Billy Strayhorn William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the ...

, James "Chuckles" Walker, Charles "Cookie" Cook, Luther "Slim" Preston, Henry "Phace" Roberts, Johnny Rocket, Pete Nugent,

Honi Coles Charles "Honi" Coles (April 2, 1911 – November 12, 1992) was an American actor and tap dancer, who was inducted posthumously into the American Tap Dance Hall of Fame in 2003. He had a distinctive personal style that required technical precisio ...

Cholly Atkins Charles "Cholly" Atkins (born Charles Sylvan Atkinson; September 13, 1913 – April 19, 2003) was an American dancer and vaudeville performer, who later became noted as the house choreographer for the various artists on the label Motown. Biogr ...

Peg Leg Bates Clayton "Peg Leg" Bates (October 11, 1907 – December 6, 1998) was an African-American entertainer from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States. Life and career Early life Peg Leg Bates was born Clayton Bates on October 10, 1907, in ...

, Ernest Brown, Milton Larkin, Francis Goldberg, Frank Goldberg, Emory Evans, Elmer Waters, Roy Branker, Paul Black, Eddie West, and Chink Collins. LeRoy Myers moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in the 1930s and was the producer of the weekly tap jam sessions at the Showmans Jazz Club in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

. He was the recipient of the 2004 Honi Coles Reward and was going to be honored during Tap Extravaganza 2004 on May 30. He died a month before the Tap Extravaganza from cancer at the age of 84. To commemorate his accomplishments, on March 11, 2006 the LeRoy Myers Corner street sign, on the northeast corner of 122nd Street and Manhattan Avenue in New York City, was unveiled by LeRoy's only surviving brother, Walter Myers. The ceremony was attended by about 20 relatives that had traveled from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as Harold "Stumpy" Cromer of the tap team

Stump and Stumpy Stump and Stumpy were a tap dance/comedy/acting duo popular from the mid-1930s to the 1950s, consisting of James "Stump" Cross, and either Eddie Hartman or Harold J. Cromer as "Stumpy". Their act was mostly jazz tap, and comedy expressed through ...

, dancer

Norma Miller Norma Adele Miller (December 2, 1919 – May 5, 2019) was an American Lindy hop dancer, choreographer, actress, author, and comedian known as the "Queen of Swing". Early life Miller was born in 1919 in Harlem, New York City, to mother Alma, a c ...

, and many others. LeRoy Myers was an honorary board member of th
Tap Legacy Foundation
(TLF). On May 25, 2006, a commemorative plaque honoring the memory of LeRoy Myers was presented at Showmans by TLF.

References

1919 births 2004 deaths American tap dancers Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Artists from Philadelphia 20th-century American dancers 20th-century African-American people {{Dance-bio-stub