 After 1938, his lung ailment returned and he retired from performance.In later years he worked in songwriting, disc jockeying, and in music press, and became a deputy sheriff in Fort Worth.Stanley Dance, writing about a concert played by Ellington and Sarah Vaughan, said, "There was a good crowd in the huge auditorium that night...The promoter, we were told, had a problem because of ticket counterfeiting.