Career
Bates lost a leg at the age of 12 in a cotton gin accident. He subsequently taught himself to tap dance with a wooden peg legal Bates was a well-known dancer in his day.
He performed on The Editor Sullivan Show 22 times, and had two command performances before the King & Queen of England in 1936 and then again in 1938.
He retired from the dancing business in 1996. This made Bates the first black resort owner in Ulster County in the Catskill Mountains, the famous Borscht Belt of Jewish resorts, hotels, and bungalow colonies.
He was also very active in the local Ellenville Lions Club, and during the last ten years of his life he traveled regularly to schools, senior citizen centers, and nursing homes showing a video about his life and talking about his life experiences. He also helped found a local Senior Citizens Center in the Ellenville / Kerhonkson area.
He loved to tell youngsters that they could do anything they wanted.
He would say "look at medical "
During a United Service Organizations hospital tour, he partnered with vaudeville tap dancer Dixie Roberts, who said "he danced better with one leg than anyone else could with two."
He collapsed on his way to church a day later, and died on December 8, 1998, at age 91. The citizens of Fountain Inn erected a life-size statue that can be viewed in front of the city hall and Robert Quillen"s library. There are signs at the entrance of the city saying "Peg Legal Bates" home town."
He was part of the first Louis Armstrong tour of Britain in the mid 50"s
Public Broadcasting Service made a documentary of his life in the 1980s.
The South Carolina ETV made a documentary about Bates in the early 2000s.
United States. Route 209 in Ulster County, New York has been named the "Clayton Peg Legal Bates Memorial Highway". They live in Kerhonkson, New New York