There was desire, burden, fear, ambition, reverse after reverse, bitter disappointment, joy, success, sympathy, love for people. [102], Williams has been called "the King of Country Music" in popular culture. Payne,[1] along with Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb,[2] had a major influence on Williams' later musical style. Around this time Williams released more hit songs, such as "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy", "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me", "Why Should We Try Anymore", "Nobody's Lonesome for Me", "Long Gone Lonesome Blues", "Why Don't You Love Me", "Moanin' the Blues", and "I Just Don't Like This Kind of Living". Born and raised in Alabama, Williams was given guitar lessons by African-American blues musician Rufus Payne in exchange for meals or money. After determining that Williams was dead, Carr asked for help from the owner of the station who notified the police. Because a corpse was involved, Stamey called in radio officer Howard Janney. His physical appearance diminished, too. Police found empty beer cans and unfinished song lyrics in the Cadillac where Williams died. [43] The recordings "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" became successful, and earned Williams the attention of MGM Records. During one of his concerts, Williams met his idol, Grand Ole Opry star Roy Acuff backstage,[43] who later warned him of the dangers of alcohol, saying, "You've got a million-dollar talent, son, but a ten-cent brain. [60] Williams released seven hit songs after "Lovesick Blues", including "Wedding Bells",[55] "Mind Your Own Business", "You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave)", and "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It". Hank Williams in his coffin. On New Year's Day in 1953 the heart of country music was broken; the Shakespeare of Country Music died in the backseat of a powder blue Cadillac in Oak Hill, West Virginia on his way to a booking in Canton, Ohio. By the time he'd moved with his mother to Montgomery in 1937, Williams' music career was already in motion. Jett, whose legal name is Cathy Deupree Adkinson, was raised by Williams' mother for two years until she died. [52] Rose signed Williams to a six-song contract, and leveraged this deal to sign Williams with Sterling Records. [3] In October 1952, he married Billie Jean Jones. His son, Hank Williams, Jr., a successful country performer in his own right (like Williamss grandson, Hank Williams III), sang Williamss songs in the film biography Your Cheatin Heart (1964). People from 35 states were said to have made the trip to say farewell to Hank. [59] On May 21, he had been admitted to North Louisiana Sanitarium for the treatment of his alcoholism, leaving on May 24. Carr called the Charleston auditorium from Knoxville to say that Williams would not arrive on time owing to the ice storm and was ordered to drive Williams to Canton, Ohio for the New Year's Day concert there. [19] Carr's account of how he discovered that Williams was dead outside Oak Hill is challenged by Dr. Leo Killorn, a Canadian intern at Beckley hospital, West Virginia, fifteen miles from Oak Hill, who claims that Carr drove up to the hospital and asked him to see Williams. As his driver, college student Charles Carr, barreled toward a concert venue in Canton, Ohio, Williams' health took a turn for the worse. [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. Carr and Williams checked out of the hotel, but the porters had to carry Williams to the car as he was coughing and hiccuping. The day after Williams died, The Montgomery Advertiser recalled Williams as a former peanut vendor who learned to play guitar at age 6. Around this time, he met Billie Jean Jones, a girlfriend of country singer Faron Young, at the Grand Ole Opry. A year later he was entering talent shows and had his own band, Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys. "I went inside and an older guy, around 50, came back out with me, looked in the back seat, and said, 'I think you've got a problem'. You wrote only what you felt boil up inside you. Ultimately, the completion of the album included recordings by Alan Jackson, Norah Jones, Jack White, Lucinda Williams, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Patty Loveless, Levon Helm, Jakob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, and Merle Haggard. [98][99] Williams' remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. [5] He was the third child of Jessie Lillybelle "Lillie" (ne Skipper) (18981955) with Elonzo Huble "Lon" Williams (18911970). And he looked so satisfied I can't help it if I'm still in love with you. Hiram "Hank" Williams died on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29. The Journal that day reported WSFA received hundreds of calls and telegrams requesting the station play his songs. The song resonated with music fans, as well as executives at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, who invited Williams to perform. [clarification needed][20], The body was transported to Montgomery on January 2. Hanks first and second wives watched from the front pew. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Getty Images. [85], Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia, on December 31, 1952. They hit it off, and Williams asked Sheppard to marry him almost immediately. On December 11, 1946, in his first recording session, he recorded "Wealth Won't Save Your Soul", "Calling You", "Never Again (Will I Knock on Your Door)", and "When God Comes and Gathers His Jewels", which was misprinted as "When God Comes and Fathers His Jewels". It provided the title for the 1964 biographic film of the same name, which starred George Hamilton. . He returned to Shreveport, Louisiana, to perform on KWKH and WBAM shows and in the Louisiana Hayride, for which he toured again. His hair began falling out, and he put on 30 extra pounds. Montgomery, Alabama - Family at Hank Williams memorial unveiling. Meanwhile, Lewis Fitzgerald's son Ricky billed himself as Hank Williams IV following his father's claim of being Williams' son. [47] As a result of the new variety of his repertoire, Williams published his first songbook, Original Songs of Hank Williams. [81] A relationship with a woman named Bobbie Jett during this period resulted in a daughter, Jett Williams, who was born five days after Williams died. 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. Carr was 17, a freshman on break from Auburn. The marriage was always turbulent and rapidly disintegrated, and Williams developed serious problems with alcohol, morphine, and other painkillers prescribed for him to ease the severe back pain caused by his spina bifida occulta. [67], Williams' career reached a peak in the late summer of 1951 with his Hadacol tour of the U.S. with Bob Hope and other actors. In 1951, Williams hosted a 15-minute show for Mother's Best Flour on WSM radio. As a girl, Jones had lived down the street from Williams when he was with the Louisiana Hayride, and now Williams began to visit her frequently in Shreveport, causing him to miss many Grand Ole Opry appearances. Williams told a story in later concerts that attributed his name change to a cat's yowling. As a result, he was not considered a reliable performer. [141] The original acetates made their way to the possession of Jett Williams. 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.. 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. During World War II Williams commuted between Mobile, where he worked in a shipyard, and Montgomery, where he pursued a musical career. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. A doctor was called to examine him. [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. [32] During the same year, he participated in a talent show at the Empire Theater. With Hill's help, the family began collecting the money. This being the days of Jim Crow, the 200 Black mourners were in a segregated balcony. His father worked as a logger before entering the Veterans Administration hospital when young Hank was just six. [6] The family's first child, Ernest Huble Williams, was born on July 5, 1921; he died two days later. Lillie Stone, Audrey Williams, and Hank Williams, Jr., seated on a bed while looking through letters and cards received after the death of Hank Williams, Sr. [16], The circumstances of Williams's death are still controversial. Tributes to Williams took place the day after his death. "I think he had a profound sadness in him," says Marc Abraham, writer and director of I Saw The Light. Liquored up and abusing morphine, he collapsed in a hotel room in Knoxville, Tennessee. However, his plaintive, bluesy phrasing was unique and became a touchstone of country music. The identity of her famous father remained a mystery to her until her early twenties. 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. It was all in Hanks heart. In the years since his death, Williams' impact has only grown, with artists as varied as Perry Como, Dinah Washington, Norah Jones and Bob Dylan all covering his work. Cut from rural stock, Williams, the third child of Lon and Lillie Williams, grew up in a household that never had much money. Hank jr. was three years old when his father died in 1959. Copy. [53], Williams signed with MGM Records in 1947 and released "Move It on Over"; considered an early example of rock and roll music, the song became a country hit. Entrance marker of the Oakwood Annex Cemetery in, Grave of Audrey (left) and Hank Williams (right) at Oakwood Annex Cemetery, Oklahoma investigation of Horace Marshall. After Hawkshaw Hawkins and other performers started singing Williams' song "I Saw the Light" as a tribute to him, the crowd realized that he was indeed dead and began to sing along. [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. [89] Dr. P. H. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain of morphine. In 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip in Tennessee, reactivating his old back pains and causing him to be dependent on alcohol and prescription drugs. 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. [62] [70], In November 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip with his fiddler Jerry Rivers in Franklin, Tennessee. He acknowledged that in previous testimony he had falsely claimed to be a physician. In 1930, when Williams was seven years old, Elonzo began experiencing facial paralysis. Hank Williams was born in September 1923 in a small Alabama farming community about 70 miles south of Montgomery. [15] That evening, when the announcer at Canton announced Williams's death to the gathered crowd, they started laughing, thinking that it was just another excuse. [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. Meanwhile, "Weary Blues From Waitin'" reached No. [139] On October 22, 1975, a federal judge in Atlanta, Georgia, ruled Horton's marriage to Williams was valid and that half of Williams' future royalties belonged to her.[140]. Jett did not learn that she was Williams' daughter until the early 1980s. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. [142], For other people named Hank Williams, see. Due to Williams' excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. His performances were acclaimed when he was sober, but despite the efforts of his work associates to get him to shows sober, his abuse of alcohol resulted in occasions when he did not appear or his performances were poor. Malinin also found that, apparently unrelated to his death, Williams had also been severely kicked in the groin during a fight in a Montgomery bar a few days earlier[14] in which he had also injured his left arm, which had been subsequently bandaged. [45] Sheppard later told Williams that she wanted to move to Montgomery with him and start a band together and help him regain his radio show. The pain and anguish that led him to drink could be heard in his songs. [80] In June 1952, Williams moved in with his mother, even as he released numerous hit songs such as "Half as Much" in April, "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" in July, "You Win Again" in September, and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" in November. Among the hits he wrote were "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". [11] Carr later drove on until he stopped for fuel at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where he discovered Williams seemingly asleep in the back seat. One characteristic of Williams' recordings as "Luke the Drifter" is the use of narration rather than singing. The recordings, which Legacy Entertainment acquired in 1997, include live versions of Williams' hits and his cover version of other songs. "Fan It" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band", recorded by Williams at age 15; the homemade recordings of him singing "Freight Train Blues", "New San Antonio Rose", "St. Louis Blues" and "Greenback Dollar" at age 18; and a recording for the 1951 March of Dimes. Williams had an agreement giving his first wife half of the royalties, but allegedly there was no clarification that the deal was valid after his death. Died On: 1953: How old was Hank Williams Sr.? Both women had been using the description professionally. Hank Williams Sr. They began to fill the auditorium hours before the afternoon funeral. Hank Williams became one of America's first country music superstars, with hits like "Your Cheatin' Heart," before his early death at 29. Later life and death. [77], During his last recording session on September 23, 1952, Williams recorded "Kaw-Liga", along with "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Take These Chains from My Heart", and "I Could Never be Ashamed of You". The house had a small garden on which they grew diverse crops that Williams and his sister Irene sold around Georgiana. His passing did not bring about the end to his stardom, however. Under the name of Dr. C. W. Lemon he prescribed Williams with amphetamines, Seconal, chloral hydrate, and morphine.[6]. Jett Williams, 39, was born to Bobbie Jett five days after Williams died. (An audio recording of the funeral begins at the 7:30 mark of the video below. [107] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame[108] in 1961 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985. Secondly,how did hank williams pass away? [25] His funeral was said to have been far larger than any ever held for any other citizen of Alabama,[27][21] and the largest event ever held in Montgomery,[28] surpassing Jefferson Davis' inauguration as President of the Confederacy. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Born in Banks, Alabama, in 1923, Audrey Mae Sheppard met her future husband, Hank, in high school. Widely considered country music's first superstar, Hiram "Hank" Williams was born September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama. Carr was exhausted and, according to the police reports, nervous enough to invite suspicion that foul play had been involved in Williams' death. In 2010 the Pulitzer Prize board awarded Williams a special citation 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.. The Opry eventually fired him, and in 1952, he and Sheppard divorced. He told Hill that his mother was interested in talking to him about his problems and her need to collect Elonzo's disability pension. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. 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. Jett was 21 when she realized Williams could be her biological father. [138], After Williams' death, Audrey Williams filed a suit in Nashville against MGM Records and Acuff-Rose. After Hawkshaw Hawkins and other performers started singing "I Saw the Light" as a tribute to Williams, the crowd, now realizing that he was indeed dead, followed them. 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. The song was number one on the country charts for six weeks. 4. He returned to perform in KWKH and WBAM shows and in the Louisiana Hayride, for which he toured again. Many of their replacements refused to play in the band due to Williams' worsening alcoholism. Williams married singer Audrey Sheppard, who was his manager for nearly a decade. The ceremony featured Ferlin Husky interpreting "I Saw the Light". Carr immediately realized that he was dead and informed the filling station's owner, Glenn Burdette, who called the chief of the local police, O.H. That day, Williams could not fly because of an ice storm in the Nashville area; he hired a college student, Charles Carr, to drive him to the concerts. Williams said he did not, and those are thought to be his last words. A 3-CD selection of the tracks, restored by Joe Palmaccio, was released by Time-Life in October 2008 titled The Unreleased Recordings. [72], During the spring of 1952, Williams flew to New York with steel guitarist Don Helms, where he made two appearances with other Grand Ole Opry members on The Kate Smith Evening Hour. 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. 1 (three posthumously). [132] Broadcast in 1949, the shows were recorded for the promotion of Hadacol. Payne gave Williams guitar lessons in exchange for money or meals prepared by Lillie. His stardom put money in his pocket and gave him the kind of creative freedom artists long for. 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. [127] His great-grandson Coleman Finchum, son of Hank Williams III, released his debut single credited to IV and the Strange Band in 2021. [27] Payne taught Williams chords, chord progressions, bass turns, and the musical style of accompaniment that he would use in most of his future songwriting. 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." [18], In the fall of 1934, the Williams family moved to Greenville, Alabama, where Lillie opened a boarding house next to the Butler County courthouse. The man in the back seat was singer-songwriter Hank Williams Sr. "I ran in and explained my situation to the two interns who were in the hospital," said Carr, now a 67-year-old Montgomery businessman. From The Montgomery Advertiser. [103][104] Alabama governor Gordon Persons officially proclaimed September 21 "Hank Williams Day". Finally, after not hearing from the singer for two solid hours, the driver pulled the car over in Oak Hill, West Virginia, at 5:30 in the morning. That all changed in 1949 with the release of "Lovesick Blues," a throwaway rendition of an old show tune he'd pushed to tape at the end of a recording session. Charles Carr told the AJC in 2002 he was the only witness when Hank Williams died. She cried out, Hes gone gone over and over as firefighters helped her out. [42] He continued to show up for his radio show intoxicated, so in August 1942 the WSFA radio station fired him for "habitual drunkenness". While living in Georgiana, Williams met Rufus "Tee-Tot" Payne, a street performer. [134] Gimarc contacted Williams' daughter Jett, and Colin Escott, writer of a biography book on Williams. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. On . [63] The songs depicted Luke the Drifter traveling around from place to place, narrating stories of different characters and philosophizing about life. A little more than a year later, on December 30, 1952, Williams, newly married to a younger woman named Billie Jean, left his mother's home in Montgomery for Charlestown, West Virginia. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. He attributed the decision to Williams' declining career: "Most of his bookings were of the honky-tonk beer joint variety that he simply hated. By the early 1940s, he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville. At 11:25 p.m., Hank Williams was arrested in Alexander City at the Russell Hotel for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Meanwhile, between tour schedules, Williams returned to Montgomery to host his radio show. Best Answer. [23] Despite his medical condition, the family managed fairly well financially throughout the Great Depression. Williams was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong paina factor in his later abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Advertisement. [97], Williams' final single, released in November 1952 while he was still alive, was titled "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive". [28] His musical style contained influences from Payne along with several other country influences, among them Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, and Roy Acuff. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Instead, Williams died 67 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1953. [26] His final single released during his lifetime was ironically titled "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." He formed the Drifting Cowboys backup band, which was managed by his mother, and dropped out of school to devote his time to his career. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. [109] When Downbeat magazine took a poll the year after Williams' death, he was voted the most popular country and Western performer of all timeahead of such giants as Jimmie Rodgers, Roy Acuff, Red Foley, and Ernest Tubb.[110]. Hank Williams Sr. was 29 Years, 3 Months, 15 Days old. [71] On December 13, 1951, he had a spinal fusion at the Vanderbilt University Hospital, being released on December 24. Hank Williams was born Hiram Williams[3] on September 17, 1923,[4] in the rural community of Mount Olive in Butler County, Alabama. Country music historian Bill Malone wrote that Williams sang with the quality that has characterized every great hillbilly singer: utter sincerity. Despite Williamss many well-known heartbreak songs, it should also be remembered that he was capable of writing and singing with great joy and humour, as on, for example, Howlin at the Moon., The last years of his life were suffused in increasing sadness and substance abuse. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. "[44], He worked for the rest of the war for a shipbuilding company in Mobile, Alabama, as well as singing in bars for soldiers. Less than 48 hours later, Hank Williams was dead. [37], In August 1938, Elonzo Williams was temporarily released from the hospital. James Ellis Garner later played fiddle for him. [Part 1]", "Hank Williams Sr. makes his Grand Ole Opry debut", "The Year's Top Country and Western Records", "Hank Williams' last ride: Driver recalls lonesome end", Huber, Patrick, Goodson, Steve & Anderson, David 2014, Haislop, Neil, Lathrop, Tad & Sumrall, Harry 1995, "1985 Inductee: Lifework Award for Performing Achievement", "Hank Williams Wins Again, And Inspires Countless Covers | uDiscover", "Hank Williams receives additional Grammy Recognition as "Lovesick Blues" inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame", "The Beatles' catalogue wins 'Best Historical Album' Grammy", "Hank Williams: Native American group Inducts Him", "The 2010 Pulitzer Prize Winners Special Awards and Citations", "Hilary Williams Details Her Brush with Death in 'Sign of Life', "New exhibit explores Hank Williams' family legacy", "Hilary Williams on Triumphant New Album 'My Lucky Scars,' Family Legacy", "Country Singer Hank Williams Jr.'s Daughter, 27, Killed in Tennessee Car Crash", "The Hank Williams Lineage Continues with Hank3's Son "IV", "Nashville Skyline: Hank Williams' Life After Death", "The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams to be released in October", "Nashville Skyline: Johnny Cash and Hank Williams: Got Some More Music Here", "Hear a newly discovered Hank Williams performance", "Six Decades Later, A Long-Lost Hank Williams Recording Resurfaces", "Newly Discovered Hank!