For Hank to have lived even a normal life span, he would have had to avoid chemical dependence. [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. What we do know is that Williams died when he was just 29 years old. If he came to this conclusion (of suicide), he still had enough prestige left as a star to make a first-class production of it whereas, six months from now, unless he pulled himself back up into some high-class bookings, he might have been playing for nickels and dimes on skid row. Williamss music itself was not especially groundbreaking, though he was a deft synthesizer of blues, honky-tonk country, western swing, and other genres. Lyons recalled how Hank rose from being a shoeshine boy to star of the stage. [3] In October 1952, he married Billie Jean Jones. Killorn stated that the fact that Carr told him it was Hank Williams caused him to remember the incident. At cafes across the South, the paper added, his songs blared over radios as news of his death spread. In June, he divorced Audrey Williams,[2] and on August 11, Williams was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness. Williams' son, Hank Williams Jr., and widow, Billie Jean Williams Berlin, currently split the royalties. [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. [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. He was one of the finest young men that we ever knew, Acuff said. . On New Year's Day 1953, at the age of 29, Williams suffered from heart failure while being driven to his next scheduled concert in Charleston, West Virginia, and died suddenly in the back seat of the car in Oak Hill, West Virginia. He sang "Cold, Cold Heart", "Hey Good Lookin''", "Glory Bound Train" and "I Saw the Light" with other cast members, and a duet, "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" with Anita Carter. They later drove to Oak Hill in search of a hospital, stopping at a Pure Oil station on the edge of town. Audrey Williams divorced him that year; the next day he recorded "You Win Again" and "I Won't be Home No More". His name was misspelled as "Hiriam" on his birth certificate, which was prepared and signed when he was 10 years old. Williams and Sheppard married in 1944. [121] In 1999, Williams was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame. He was driving Hank Williams, 29, who died that night. The prolific musician and performer wrote songs such as "Your Cheatin' Heart," drank too much whiskey, had family problems. The pain and anguish that led him to drink could be heard in his songs. Roy Acuff, along with a host of countrys biggest stars, performed I Saw The Light., MONTGOMERY, AL - JANUARY 4: Guitar themed flower arrangements adorn the gravesite of country singer Hank Williams as he is laid to rest at the Oakwood Cemetary Annex on January 4, 1953 in Montgomery, Alabama. Carr drove through the night as Williams declined his offer to stop for food. James Ellis Garner later played fiddle for him. [43] The recordings "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" became successful, and earned Williams the attention of MGM Records. He remained hospitalized for eight years, rendering him mostly absent throughout Williams' childhood. [31], In July 1937, the Williams and McNeils opened a boarding house on South Perry Street in downtown Montgomery. In 1977, a national organization of CB truck drivers voted "Your Cheatin' Heart" as their favorite record of all time. People from 35 states were said to have made the trip to say farewell to Hank. Wiki User. [131] In 1993, a double-disc set of recordings of Williams for the Health & Happiness Show was released. He was scheduled to perform a few gigs on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to see in. [66] In 1951, "Dear John" became a hit, but it was the flip side, "Cold, Cold Heart", that became one of his most recognized songs. The break had to come, he added. Died On: 1953: How old was Hank Williams Sr.? 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. I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin' like myself. [41], The American entry into World War II in 1941 marked the beginning of hard times for Williams. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame in 1999. Alternate titles: Hiram King Williams, the Hillbilly Shakespeare. [85], Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia, on December 31, 1952. [52] Rose signed Williams to a six-song contract, and leveraged this deal to sign Williams with Sterling Records. The ceremony featured Ferlin Husky interpreting "I Saw the Light". [39] Oklahoma Governor Johnston Murray revoked the parole of Horace Raphol "Toby" Marshall, who returned to prison to complete his forgery sentence.[40]. His substance abuse problems continued to spiral out of control as he moved to Nashville and officially divorced Sheppard. However, much of what led to his non-sobriety is exactly what made his music as good as it was. As the titles of some of Williams' songs suggest, heartbreak and turmoil were never that far from his life. Father and son rarely saw each other over the next decade, with Williams' mother, who ran rooming houses, moving the family to Greenville and later Montgomery, Alabama. If Williams had lived, it's not entirely certain that the Nashville music community, so eager to shed its hillbilly roots, would have continued to embrace Williams' music. In 1930, when Williams was seven years old, Elonzo began experiencing facial paralysis. [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. His first wife and his mother were the driving forces behind having the marriage declared invalid, and they pursued the matter for years. 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. Hank Williams, the 29-year-old King of Country Music, was to have flown to Charleston, West Virginia for a New Years Eve concert but an ice storm near Nashville kept him away. Hank Williams became one of America's first country music superstars, with hits like "Your Cheatin' Heart," before his early death at 29. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hank-Williams. In 1946, Williams traveled to Nashville to meet with music publisher Fred Rose and the Acuff-Rose Publications company. Williams said he did not, and those are thought to be his last words. One famous person of Williams, Jr.'s . The newlyweds spent Christmas 1952 with Williamss mother in Montgomery. Montgomery, Alabama Hank Williams was country music's first megastar. His official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but there are many who say otherwise. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. "Long Gone Daddy: A Biography of Hank Williams, Country Music's Tragic Hero". 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. [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. 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. Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. 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. Among the hits he wrote were "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". [8] He was of English and Welsh ancestry,[9][10][11][12] and he was also of Muscogee, Choctaw, and Cherokee descent. He was unresponsive and rigor mortis had already begun to set in. As people across his native Alabama picked up their newspapers that day, they were greeted with the tragic news Williams had died. He was very kind, and said Oak Hill General Hospital was six miles on my left," and that would place him in Mount Hope. [34] [35], Williams' successful radio show fueled his entry into a music career. Omissions? As a boy, Williams was the musical protg of Rufus Payne, an African American street performer who went by the name Tee-Tot and busked on the streets of Georgiana and Greenville, Alabama. He won the first prize of $15, singing his first original song "WPA Blues". Later, he started to consume painkillers, including morphine, and alcohol to ease the pain. Roy Acuff leads a host of country stars singing at the funeral of Hank Williams. The day after Williams died, The Montgomery Advertiser recalled Williams as a former peanut vendor who learned to play guitar at age 6. Little did he know that the woman he would fall in love with would be the key to his success. By the end of 1952, Williams had started to have heart problems. [83] After Williams' death, a judge ruled that the wedding was not legal because Jones' divorce had not become final until 11 days after she married Williams. There he sang "Hey Good Lookin'", and the next week Como opened the show singing the same song, with apologies to Williams. 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. Discover Hank Williams' Death Car in Montgomery, Alabama: Cadillac where country's first big star was found dead. She cried out, Hes gone gone over and over as firefighters helped her out. 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. [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. [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. 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. [93] Dr. Ivan Malinin performed the autopsy at the Tyree Funeral House. What began with Williams writing material for singer Molly O'Day eventually gave way to a record contract with the recently created MGM label. 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. Most of the material was written by Williams himself, in some cases with the help of Fred Rose and his son Wesley. She drove her son and his band to shows throughout southern Alabama. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Among other fake titles, he said that he was a Doctor of Science. (An audio recording of the funeral begins at the 7:30 mark of the video below. 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. His iconic status was amplified by his death at age 29 and by his reputation for hard living and heart-on-the-sleeve vulnerability. James E. (Jimmy) Porter was the youngest, being only 13 when he started playing steel guitar for Williams. You wrote only what happened to you and the people around you, Advertiser columnist Allen Rankin wrote on the day of the funeral. In ways that must have seemed unimaginable to this poor country boy, Williams' life quickly changed. [78] His final concert was held in Austin, Texas, at the Skyline Club on December 19. [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. Chief Winfred Patterson who arrested Hank said to the Alabama Journal in 1971 that Hank was "more or less having DT's (delirium tremens). Reporters answering telephoned queries concerning Williams death said many of the callers cried when informed that the reports were true.. 7. In 1953, months after Hank Sr.'s death, Williams paid his second wife, Billie Jean Jones, $30,000 to relinquish the title of "Hank Williams's Widow". Carr told Cooper this happened at the side of the road six miles from Oak Hill, but investigating officer Howard Janney placed it in the Skyline Drive-In restaurant's parking lot, noting that Carr sought help from a Skyline employee. [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. 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. [30] Williams's remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. He later started to consume painkillers, including morphine, and alcohol to help ease the pain. You wrote only what you felt boil up inside you. Hank Williams Sr. Celebrity Births Deaths and Ages Hank Williams Sr. By the early 1940s, he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville. He denied any responsibility in both deaths. In 1951, Williams hosted a 15-minute show for Mother's Best Flour on WSM radio. [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. Prior to that, duplicates were made and intended to be published by a third party. [79], On December 15, 1944, Williams married Audrey Sheppard. The authors of Hank Williams: The Biography pointed out that "Hank" sounded more "like a hillbilly and western star" than "Hiram". The investigating officer in Oak Hill declared later that Carr told him that he had pulled over at the Skyline Drive-In restaurant outside Oak Hill, and found Williams dead. [30] Payne and Williams lost touch, though Payne also eventually moved to Montgomery, where he died in poverty in 1939. "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. When new wife Billie Jean asked what was the matter, she claimed his. Regardless, Carr said he next drove to "a cut-rate gas station". The Journal that day reported WSFA received hundreds of calls and telegrams requesting the station play his songs. Williams dropped out of school in October 1939 so that he and the Drifting Cowboys could work full-time. Advance ticket sales totaled $3,500. [122] On April 12, 2010, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded Williams a posthumous special citation that paid tribute to 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". He died in the back seat of his Cadillac while being driven to a gig on New Year's Day 1953. Ernest Tubbs began the funeral with Beyond the Sunset and Red Foley and The Statesman Quartet sang Peace In The Valley.. Corrections? .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Rock Icon KISS Is Saying Goodbye (For Real), Rihanna and 10 Other Great Pregnant Performances, Burt Bacharachs Legacy: 5 Notable Collaborations, 2023 Grammy Awards: Six Winners Who Made History. Williams' mother had claimed that he was dead. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. [33], As part of an investigation of illicit drug traffic conducted by the Oklahoma legislature, representative Robert Cunningham seized Marshall's files. In 1947, he released "Move It on Over", which became a hit, and also joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program. His hair began falling out, and he put on 30 extra pounds. Here are more vintage images and stories of Alabamas past. Williams was among the first class of artists inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, and in 2010, the Pulitzer Board awarded him a special citation for songwriting. Williams was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as one of the most significant country music artists of all time. They are in a bedroom in the home of Lillie (Hank Williams's mother) on North McDonough Street in Montgomery, Alabama. A doctor injected. Date Of Birth : Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Best Answer. Marshall admitted that he had also prescribed chloral hydrate to his recently deceased wife, Faye, as a headache medicine. Probably taught his first chords by Payne, Williams began playing the guitar at age 8. The 27-year-old was driving the car, which was. ), He was racked by physical and emotional afflictions, and these coupled with his gift of song, made him kin to millions.. A doctor injected Williams with B12 and morphine and porters carried the legendary singer-songwriter to the car. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! Buy newspaper front pages, posters and more. At this stage Williams began abusing alcohol, a problem that haunted him the rest of his life but that came about partly as a result of his attempts to self-medicate agonizing back pain caused by a congenital spinal disorder. It was something he apparently saw coming. All Rights Reserved. The identity of her famous father remained a mystery to her until her early twenties. A doctor was called to examine him. [127] His great-grandson Coleman Finchum, son of Hank Williams III, released his debut single credited to IV and the Strange Band in 2021. It included 10 songs: "Mother Is Gone", "Won't You Please Come Back", "My Darling Baby Girl" (with Audrey Sheppard), "Grandad's Musket", "I Just Wish I Could Forget", "Let's Turn Back the Years", "Honkey-Tonkey", "I Loved No One But You", "A Tramp on the Street", and "You'll Love Me Again". Hank Williams, byname of Hiram Williams, also called the Hillbilly Shakespeare, (born September 17, 1923, Georgiana, Alabama, U.S.died January 1, 1953, Oak Hill, West Virginia), American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who in the 1950s arguably became country music 's first superstar. While her son was not on the stage, his song I Saw The Light opened the show. After the failure of his audition, Williams and Audrey Sheppard attempted to interest the recently formed music publishing firm Acuff-Rose Music. Their son, Randall Hank Williams (now known as Hank Williams Jr.), was born on May 26, 1949. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. Beside Hanks coffin were two large wreaths shaped like guitars, another set of flowers was shaped like a Bible, two lamps were shining purple lights, and in his hands there was a small Bible. [112] He was ranked second in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003, behind only Johnny Cash who recorded the song "The Night Hank Williams Came To Town". At around midnight on New Year's Day, Thursday, January 1, 1953, they crossed the Tennessee state line and arrived in Bristol, Virginia. [133] In May 2014, further radio recordings by Williams were released. [114] Many artists of the 1950s and 1960s, including Elvis Presley,[115] Bob Dylan, Tammy Wynette, David Houston, Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard,[116] Gene Vincent,[117] Carl Perkins,[118] Ricky Nelson, and Conway Twitty[119] recorded Williams' songs during their careers. He purchased the DSC title for $25 from the Chicago School of Applied Science; in the diploma, he requested that the DSc be spelled out as "Doctor of Science and Psychology". 1 on the country charts. [29] Around two tons of flowers were sent. Williams eventually started to host a show on KWKH and started touring across western Louisiana and eastern Texas, always returning on Saturdays for the weekly broadcast of the Hayride. [87] Carr called the Charleston auditorium from Knoxville to say that Williams would not arrive on time owing to the ice storm and was instead ordered to drive Williams to Canton, Ohio, for a New Year's Day concert there. [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]. "I saw that the overcoat and blanket that had been covering Hank had slipped off," Carr told yet another reporter. "[25] An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people passed by the silver coffin, and the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. He was unable to read or notate music to any significant degree. [5] He met Horace Raphol "Toby" Marshall in Oklahoma City, who claimed to be a doctor. [26] During the funeral four women fainted and a fifth was carried out of the auditorium in hysterics after falling at the foot of the casket. Tributes to Williams took place the day after his death. [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. 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.. [47] As a result of the new variety of his repertoire, Williams published his first songbook, Original Songs of Hank Williams. He found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart". His song "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written and recorded in September 1952, but released in late January 1953 after his death. Alabamians mourned the death of their Hank, expressing themselves to newspapers, radio stations and to relatives staying at the home of the stars mother, that report continued. Hanks first and second wives watched from the front pew. 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. Carr and Williams checked out of the hotel, but the porters had to carry Williams to the car as he was coughing and hiccuping. Stars of the Grand Ole Opry were expected along with thousands of fans to bid farewell to Williams. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). It was placed in a silver coffin that was first shown at his mother's boarding house at 318 McDounough Street for two days. [89] Dr. P. H. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain of morphine. 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. Heart failure and hard living did him in. [63] The songs depicted Luke the Drifter traveling around from place to place, narrating stories of different characters and philosophizing about life. [138], After Williams' death, Audrey Williams filed a suit in Nashville against MGM Records and Acuff-Rose. As a result, he was not considered a reliable performer. 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. "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 . Payne gave Williams guitar lessons in exchange for money or meals prepared by Lillie. Later life and death. 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. Carr was exhausted and, according to the police reports, nervous enough to invite suspicion that foul play had been involved in Williams' death. The performances greatly increased Williams' name recognition, but he still lacked a number one hit. [125][126] In July 2020, his granddaughter Katherine (Hank Jr.'s daughter) died in a car crash at the age of 27. [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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Jeff Wallenfeldt, manager of Geography and History, has worked as an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica since 1992. [103][104] Alabama governor Gordon Persons officially proclaimed September 21 "Hank Williams Day". The recordings were found by collector George Gimarc at radio station KSIB in Creston, Iowa. 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. "I think he had a profound sadness in him," says Marc Abraham, writer and director of I Saw The Light. 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. Liquored up and abusing morphine, he collapsed in a hotel room in Knoxville, Tennessee. [13], The town's coroner and mortician, Dr. Ivan Malinin, a Russian immigrant who barely spoke English, performed the autopsy on Williams at the Tyree Funeral House. Many of their replacements refused to play in the band due to Williams' worsening alcoholism. Shortly thereafter he became a regular on the newly created Louisiana Hayride radio program based in Shreveport, Louisiana. [16] Lillie Williams began booking show dates, negotiating prices and driving them to some of their shows. Due to Williams' tour schedules, some of the shows were previously recorded to be played in his absence. Hiram "Hank" Williams died on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29. [clarification needed][20], The body was transported to Montgomery on January 2. Jett was 21 when she realized Williams could be her biological father.
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