François Clemmons

François Scarborough Clemmons (born April 23, 1945 in Birmingham) is an opera singer, playwright and lecturer best-known for his appearances as "Officer Clemmons" on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood".

Clemmons was born in Birmingham, but his family moved to Youngstown, Ohio when he was a child. He learned to sing negro spirituals form his grandmother and performed at school and church functions. He studied music at Oberlin College and earned a master of fine arts at Carnegie Mellon University. He auditioned successfully for the Metropolitan Opera in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and earned a regular position with the company.

Clemmons joined the cast of "Mister Rogers Neighborhood", portraying the owner of a singing and dance studio. In the 1980s he returned to singing spirituals and founded a professional performing company, the Harlem Spiritual Ensemble, which he dedicated to "preserving, sustaining and commissioning new and traditional arrangements of American Negro Spirituals for future generations." He arranged a song-book entitled Song For Today and wrote and produced a musical based on the life of Roland Hayes.

Clemmons is currently a scholar and artist-in-residence at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont.