The famous singer was one of many black musicians who joined Thomas Waller Lodge No. 49, Los Angeles. He joined in 1938, alongside his drummer Lee Young, and stuck by his masonic principles throughout his life. Other prominent musicians of the time that were also masons included the Jazz legend Louis Armstrong, which led one mason to make a speech about the connections between Jazz and Freemasonry. In fact, even the Lodge Nat King Cole attended was named after a jazz musician – Fats Waller – who died around the same time that Cole joined. Cole himself died in 1965, a loyal mason to the end.