[50], On September 14, 1946, Williams auditioned for Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, but was rejected. . At 11:25 p.m., Hank Williams was arrested in Alexander City at the Russell Hotel for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. The set was re-released on Hank Williams: The Legend Begins in 2011. PolyGram contended that Williams' contract with MGM Records, whose back catalogue they owned at the time, prior to current owner Universal Music's absorption of PolyGram the next year, gave them rights to release the radio recordings. Williams, who was recently separated from WSM "for failure to make appearances," was a resident of Montgomery, Ala. As a youth he sold peanuts and shined shoes, meanwhile strumming on a. [21] Their first house burned down, and the family lost their possessions. Defending his position, he claimed that Williams possibly committed suicide. The day after Williams died, The Montgomery Advertiser recalled Williams as a former peanut vendor who learned to play guitar at age 6. Shortly thereafter he became a regular on the newly created Louisiana Hayride radio program based in Shreveport, Louisiana. While he was medically disqualified from military service after suffering a back injury caused by falling from a bull during a rodeo in Texas, his band members were all drafted to serve. Encyclopedia of Alabama - Biography of Hank Williams Sr. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum - Biography of Hank Williams, Alabama Music Hall of Fame - Biography of Hank Williams, Hank Williams - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum (1987). Carr and Williams checked out of the hotel at around 10:45p.m. Hotel porters had to carry Williams to his vehicle, an Olympic Blue 1952 Cadillac Series 62 convertible, as he was coughing and hiccupping. [123] Several members of Williams' descendants became musicians: Hank Williams Jr., daughter Jett Williams, grandsons Hank Williams III and Sam Williams, and granddaughters Hilary Williams[124] and Holly Williams are also country musicians. Is Hank Williams Sr single? Killorn stated that the fact that Carr told him it was Hank Williams caused him to remember the incident. Heart failure and hard living did him in. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. [90], At around midnight on January 1, 1953, when the two crossed the Tennessee state line and arrived in Bristol, Virginia, Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked Williams if he wanted to eat. He died of a heart attack in a drug- and alcohol-induced stupor in the backseat of a car, probably in West Virginia, while being driven from Knoxville, Tennessee, to a concert in Canton, Ohio. Both women had been using the description professionally. [15] He was born with spina bifida occulta, a birth defect of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong pain; this became a factor in his later alcohol and drug abuse. Omissions? [84], A man named Lewis Fitzgerald (born 1943) claimed to be Williams' illegitimate son; he was the son of Marie McNeil, Williams' cousin. [141] The original acetates made their way to the possession of Jett Williams. Reporters answering telephoned queries concerning Williams death said many of the callers cried when informed that the reports were true.. His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. In ways that must have seemed unimaginable to this poor country boy, Williams' life quickly changed. Before it was over, some 20,000 people had filled the auditorium and the street outside for what was described as the largest funeral in Montgomerys history. The Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a posthumous special citation in 2010 for his "craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life". [142], For other people named Hank Williams, see. Lillie was unwilling to let him reclaim his position as the head of the household. By the time he'd moved with his mother to Montgomery in 1937, Williams' music career was already in motion. A doctor was called to examine him. That night, the singers body was taken back to Montgomery. [59] On May 21, he had been admitted to North Louisiana Sanitarium for the treatment of his alcoholism, leaving on May 24. [46], In 1945, when he was back in Montgomery, Williams started to perform again for the WSFA radio station. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hank-Williams. [33], He never learned to read music; instead he based his compositions in storytelling and personal experience. In 1989, the Alabama State Supreme Court ultimately ruled in her favor and found her to be an equal heir, after an old document was recovered that showed Williams and Jett's mother had signed a shared custody agreement. After determining that Williams was dead, Carr asked for help from the owner of the station who notified the police. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! [76] In October 1952 he married Billie Jean Jones. [107] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame[108] in 1961 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985. Less than 48 hours later, Hank Williams was dead. Now free to travel without Williams' schooling taking precedence, the band could tour as far away as western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. Best Known For: Hank Williams became one of America's first country music superstars, with hits like "Your Cheatin' Heart," before his early death at 29. Williams began his music career in Montgomery in 1937, when producers at local radio station WSFA hired him to perform and host a 15-minute program. [30] Williams's remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. His name was misspelled as "Hiriam" on his birth certificate, which was prepared and signed when he was 10 years old. Hank Williams, Jr., was only 3 years old when his father died ("Hank".Bio para.4). The local record shops reportedly sold all their Williams records, and customers were asking for all records ever released by Williams. Many artists have covered his songs and he has influenced Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, George Strait, Charley Pride, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones, among others. Corrections? In 1930, when Williams was seven years old, Elonzo began experiencing facial paralysis. They had a son together, .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Hank Williams Jr., on May 26, 1949. [62] Although the real identity of Luke the Drifter was supposed to be anonymous, Williams often performed part of the material of the recordings on stage. [19] In 1935, they settled in Garland, Alabama, where Lillie opened a new boarding house; they later moved with Williams' cousin Opal McNeil to Georgiana, Alabama,[20] where Lillie took several side jobs to support the family despite the bleak economic climate of the Great Depression. Carr requested a doctor for Williams, who was feeling the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he consumed on the way from Montgomery. [16], The circumstances of Williams's death are still controversial. As a result, he was not considered a reliable performer. From The Montgomery Advertiser. "[36], On March 19, Marshall declared that he felt Williams was depressed and committed suicide by taking a higher dose of the drugs he had prescribed. Cut from rural stock, Williams, the third child of Lon and Lillie Williams, grew up in a household that never had much money. He had a message. Jett did not learn that she was Williams' daughter until the early 1980s. The song resonated with music fans, as well as executives at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, who invited Williams to perform. In full support of Williams' musical aspirations was his mother, Lillie. He showed up unannounced at the family's home in Montgomery. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain (16.2 mg) of morphine. [64][65] Some of the compositions were accompanied by a pipe organ. He found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart". The authors of Hank Williams: The Biography pointed out that "Hank" sounded more "like a hillbilly and western star" than "Hiram". You wrote only what happened to you and the people around you, Advertiser columnist Allen Rankin wrote on the day of the funeral. Also, the Drifting Cowboys were at the time backing Ray Price, while Williams was backed by local bands. A 3-CD selection of the tracks, restored by Joe Palmaccio, was released by Time-Life in October 2008 titled The Unreleased Recordings. [89] Dr. P. H. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain of morphine. His funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium,[23] with his coffin placed on the flower-covered stage. Representative Cunningham presented the committee a telegram from Marshall's seized files, directed to the estate of Hank Williams for $736.39, and stated that the committee was evaluating the revocation of Marshall's parole. Carr drove through the night as Williams declined his offer to stop for food. Another researcher decided it could have happened at any of the gas stations near Mount Hope. ), He was racked by physical and emotional afflictions, and these coupled with his gift of song, made him kin to millions.. [82], On October 18, 1952, Williams and Billie Jean Jones were married by a justice of the peace[83] in Minden, Louisiana. [37] On March 21, Robert Travis of the State Crime Bureau determined that Marshall's handwriting corresponded to that of Dr. Cecil W. Lemmon on six prescriptions written for Williams. He made his radio debut at age 13; formed his first band, Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys, at age 14; and early on began wearing the cowboy hats and western clothing that later were so associated with him. The Montgomery Auditorium, located at the intersection of Perry and Monroe Street, "Long forgotten Montgomery auditorium to see new life", "Convict Says Williams Depressed Singer Said Possible Suicide", "Name is Forged to Prescriptions, Expert Says", I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_Hank_Williams&oldid=1137643276, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from December 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart, January 4, 1953 at Oakwood Annex Cemetery in, January 1, 1953 in Oak Hill, West Virginia, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 18:47. [101] Released in July, "I Won't Be Home No More" went to No. Due to Williams' excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. Died On: 1953: How old was Hank Williams Sr.? Under Williams' guidance, Sheppard started playing bass and began performing in his band. [12] Stamey and Janney found some empty beer cans and the unfinished handwritten lyrics to a song yet to be recorded in the Cadillac convertible. When new wife Billie Jean asked what was the matter, she claimed his. [94] He also wrote that Williams had been severely beaten and kicked in the groin recently (during a fight in a Montgomery bar a few days earlier), and local magistrate Virgil F. Lyons ordered an inquest into Williams' death concerning a welt that was visible on his head. A friend of the family denied his claims, but singer Billy Walker remembered that Williams mentioned to him the presence of men in the house being led upstairs. [77] The next day, two public ceremonies were held at the New Orleans Civic Auditorium, where 14,000 seats were sold for each. [17] Author Colin Escott concluded in his book Hank Williams: The Biography that the cause of death was heart failure caused by the combination of alcohol, morphine and chloral hydrate.[18]. Prior to that, duplicates were made and intended to be published by a third party. [31], The president of MGM told Billboard magazine that the company got only about five requests for pictures of Williams during the weeks prior to his death, but over 300 afterwards. Marshall had been previously convicted for forgery, and had been paroled and released from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1951. His official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but there are many who say otherwise. It was placed in a silver coffin that was first shown at his mother's boarding house at 318 McDounough Street for two days. Having interviewed Carr, the best that Peter Cooper of The Tennessean could offer was that "somewhere between Mount Hope and Oak Hill", Carr noticed Williams' blanket had fallen off. [95] That evening, when the announcer in Canton announced Williams' death to the gathered crowd, they started laughing because they thought it was just another excuse. [131] In 1993, a double-disc set of recordings of Williams for the Health & Happiness Show was released. When he tried to move his hands, they snapped back to the same position the hotel porters had arranged him in. Advance ticket sales totaled $3,500. If a song can't be written in 20 minutes, it ain't worth writing. He was severely injured after falling from a truck, breaking his collarbone and suffering a severe blow to the head. Among other fake titles he claimed to be a Doctor of Science. Williams and Sheppard lived and worked together in Mobile. In 1977, a national organization of CB truck drivers voted "Your Cheatin' Heart" as their favorite record of all time. All Rights Reserved. On New Year's Day 1953, he took his seat in the back of his 1952 powder blue Cadillac. They are in a bedroom in the home of Lillie (Hank Williams's mother) on North McDonough Street in Montgomery, Alabama. [16] The couple divorced on May 29, 1952. [23] Despite his medical condition, the family managed fairly well financially throughout the Great Depression. In regards to her half-brother and where they stand today, Jett said: As far as having a personal relationship, we dont have like a brother-sister relationship, but we do get along; we do business and I think the world does realize that both of us have our dads best interest at heart.. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. The fall reactivated his old back pains. "Ol' Hank" was just 29 years old when he died, the same age as English Romantic Poet Shelley when he drowned in the Gulf of . [96] An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people passed by the silver casket, and the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. [42] He continued to show up for his radio show intoxicated, so in August 1942 the WSFA radio station fired him for "habitual drunkenness". For Hank to have lived even a normal life span, he would have had to avoid chemical dependence. After an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart.". As if straight out of a country song, it was revealed decades later that Williams had fathered a daughter, Jett, who was born shortly after his death. [35] On March 12, 1953, Billie Jean Jones appeared before the Oklahoma committee. [85], Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia, on December 31, 1952. [75], On August 11, 1952, Williams was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness and missing shows. When several of his band members were drafted during World War II, he had trouble with their replacements, and WSFA terminated his contract because of his alcoholism. [102], Williams has been called "the King of Country Music" in popular culture. Country music legends June Carter and Bill Monroe were among those who filed past his open casket as Hanks band, The Drifting Cowboys, backed up those singing tributes to the fallen star. 7. Fearful that disc jockeys and jukebox operators would hesitate to accept these unusual recordings, Williams used this alias to avoid hurting the marketability of his name. Williams and his wife approached Fred Rose, the president of the company, during one of his habitual ping-pong games at WSM radio studios. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him number 74 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. [59] During 1949, he joined the first European tour of the Grand Ole Opry, performing in military bases in England, Germany and the Azores. At around midnight on New Year's Day, Thursday, January 1, 1953, they crossed the Tennessee state line and arrived in Bristol, Virginia. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The Opry eventually fired him, and in 1952, he and Sheppard divorced. In 2011, Williams' 1949 MGM number one hit, "Lovesick Blues", was inducted into the Recording Academy Grammy Hall of Fame. [88] The two arrived at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Carr requested a doctor for Williams, who was affected by the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he had consumed on the way to Knoxville. This addiction eventually led to his divorce from Audrey Williams and his dismissal from the Grand Ole Opry. The newlyweds spent Christmas 1952 with Williamss mother in Montgomery. Arthur Whiting was also a guitarist for the Drifting Cowboys. [41], The American entry into World War II in 1941 marked the beginning of hard times for Williams. [78] His final concert was held in Austin, Texas, at the Skyline Club on December 19. 1 (three posthumously). The prolific musician and performer wrote songs such as "Your Cheatin' Heart," drank too much whiskey, had family problems. His funeral was held the next day, Sunday Jan. 4, 1953, at Montgomerys City Auditorium. [40] Williams' alcohol use started to become a problem during the tours; on occasion he spent a large part of the show revenues on alcohol. Williams wrote the lyrics and used the tune of Riley Puckett's "Dissatisfied". Regardless, Carr said he next drove to "a cut-rate gas station". Hanks first and second wives watched from the front pew. They moved to a new house on the other side of town on Rose Street, which Williams' mother soon turned into another boarding house. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [73] That same year, Williams had a brief extramarital affair with dancer Bobbie Jett, with whom he fathered a daughter, Jett Williams. Over the next several years he churned out a number of other big hits, including "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey Good Lookin'," "Lost Highway," and I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." Sheppard, it seems, was extremely eager to make a mark in show business and, despite her obviously limited talent, pushed her husband to let her sing. By the end of 1952, Williams had started to suffer heart problems. [103][104] Alabama governor Gordon Persons officially proclaimed September 21 "Hank Williams Day". Many of their replacements refused to play in the band due to Williams' worsening alcoholism. [137], Williams was portrayed by English actor Tom Hiddleston in the 2016 biopic I Saw the Light, based on Colin Escott's 1994 book Hank Williams: The Biography. On the evening of Dec. 30, 1952, the restless, rail-thin 29-year-old tossed and turned in bed at his home in Montgomery, Ala. Williams' mother had claimed that he was dead. He remained hospitalized for eight years, rendering him mostly absent throughout Williams' childhood. A year after first meeting with Rose, Williams had his first hit, "Move It On Over." [70], In November 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip with his fiddler Jerry Rivers in Franklin, Tennessee. While Jett was a college junior at the University of Alabama in Montgomery majoring in recreation therapy, her adoptive . Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. [92] In Williams' Cadillac, the police found some empty beer cans and unfinished handwritten lyrics. In February 2005, the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling stating that Williams' heirsson, Hank Williams Jr, and daughter, Jett Williamshave the sole rights to sell his recordings made for a Nashville radio station in 1951. 'The Garden Spot Programs' 1950", "Hank Williams' 'The Garden Spot Programs' Named Best Historical Album at the 2015 Grammy Awards", "Tom Hiddleston played country icon Hank Williams in biopic", "File Action to Untangle Hank Williams Estate", "Mother's Best, Hank's Best: A Conversation With Jett Williams and the Students", "The Year's Top Country & Western Artists/The Year's Top Country & Western Records", "PBS 'Country Music' - Native stories of Hank Williams Sr., Loretta Lynn and Peter La Farge", "Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame", "Country Music by Ken Burns Episode 3 The Hillbilly Shakespeare", Listing of all Hank Williams's songs and alternatives, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hank_Williams&oldid=1142672396, Special Awards and Citation for his pivotal role in transforming country music, This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 19:34. [83], On January 2, Williams' body was transported to Montgomery, Alabama, where it was placed in a silver casket that was displayed at his mother's boarding house for two days. [69] On November 14, 1951, Williams flew to New York with his steel guitar player Don Helms where he appeared on television for the first time on The Perry Como Show. The two were often rivals for Williams' time and attention. [35] His recent win at the Empire Theater and the street performances caught the attention of WSFA producers who occasionally invited him to perform on air. The recordings were found by collector George Gimarc at radio station KSIB in Creston, Iowa. [61], In 1950, Williams began recording as "Luke the Drifter" for his religious-themed recordings, many of which are recitations rather than singing.