[3] In October 1952, he married Billie Jean Jones. All rights reserved (About Us). Despite his physical failings, Williams was cleared for more travel. In full support of Williams' musical aspirations was his mother, Lillie. Montgomery, Alabama Hank Williams was country music's first megastar. [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. Carr drove through the night as Williams declined his offer to stop for food. His father worked as a logger before entering the Veterans Administration hospital when young Hank was just six. 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. Advertisement. 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). His body was initially transported to Montgomery and placed in a silver coffin shown at his mother's boarding house. A doctor injected. . [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. An immensely talented songwriter and an impassioned vocalist, he also experienced great crossover success in the popular music market. [68] In October, Williams recorded a demo, "There's a Tear in My Beer" for a friend, "Big Bill Lister", who recorded it in the studio. 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. 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. His first wife and his mother were the driving forces behind having the marriage declared invalid, and they pursued the matter for years. He denied any responsibility in both deaths. Heart failure and hard living did him in. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. One characteristic of Williams' recordings as "Luke the Drifter" is the use of narration rather than singing. . Malinin found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of [the] right ventricle of [the] heart." She was a headstrong, recently divorced mother of a 2-year-old, six months his senior and also a musician. About 3,000 friends of the family shuffled through his mothers living room on Montgomerys North McDonough Street where Williams body was lain in state that Saturday night. 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. Instead, Williams died 67 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1953. [10] Carr and Williams headed out of Knoxville from the Andrew Johnson Hotel via Gay Street to Magnolia Ave to 11w. [111] In 1987, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the category "Early Influence". [106], On February 8, 1960, Williams' star was placed at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 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. 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. Copy. 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. It was placed in a silver coffin that was first shown at his mother's boarding house at 318 McDounough Street for two days. 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. Hank Williams had something that humanity universally needs -- a song with a heart-felt message.. Williams married singer Audrey Sheppard, who was his manager for nearly a decade. 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. [59] On May 21, he had been admitted to North Louisiana Sanitarium for the treatment of his alcoholism, leaving on May 24. 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). [59] During 1949, he joined the first European tour of the Grand Ole Opry, performing in military bases in England, Germany and the Azores. One famous person of Williams, Jr.'s . Hank Williams was born Hiram Williams[3] on September 17, 1923,[4] in the rural community of Mount Olive in Butler County, Alabama. Lyons recalled how Hank rose from being a shoeshine boy to star of the stage. While living in Georgiana, Williams met Rufus "Tee-Tot" Payne, a street performer. While Jett was a college junior at the University of Alabama in Montgomery majoring in recreation therapy, her adoptive . 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. Hank Williams in his coffin. [28] His musical style contained influences from Payne along with several other country influences, among them Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, and Roy Acuff. Williams wrote the lyrics and used the tune of Riley Puckett's "Dissatisfied". [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. Williams and her son, Hank Jr., became estranged after he turned 18. His life and career were the subject of I Saw the Light, a 2015 biopic, starring Tom Hiddleston as Williams and Elizabeth Olsen as his first wife, Audrey. [121] In 1999, Williams was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame. Red Foley, Roy Acuff, and Ernest Tubb, among others, sang Williamss gospel-influenced I Saw the Light at his funeral, which was attended by thousands. [13][14], As a child, Williams was nicknamed "Harm" by his family and "Herky" or "Skeets" by his friends. After an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart.". [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]. Best Answer. The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, a series of publicity segments for plant nursery Naughton Farms originally aired in 1950. [91] Carr later drove on until he stopped for fuel at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where he realized that Williams had been dead for so long that rigor mortis had already set in. Williams said he did not, and those are thought to be his last words. By the early 1940s, he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville. He was very kind, and said Oak Hill General Hospital was six miles on my left," and that would place him in Mount Hope. [35], Williams' successful radio show fueled his entry into a music career. Marshall gave Cunningham a list of his patients, including Hank Williams. Updates? Meanwhile, "Weary Blues From Waitin'" reached No. His salary was enough for him to start his own band, which he dubbed the Drifting Cowboys. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. Later on, Williams recorded "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It", one of the songs that Payne taught him. The local record shops reportedly sold all their Williams records, and customers were asking for all records ever released by Williams. They moved to a new house on the other side of town on Rose Street, which Williams' mother soon turned into another boarding house. Hank Williams, Jr., was only 3 years old when his father died ("Hank".Bio para.4). The recordings were found by collector George Gimarc at radio station KSIB in Creston, Iowa. Carr talked to Williams for the last time when they stopped at a restaurant in Bristol, Virginia. He had a message. He found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart". For a time his relationship with Fred Rose deteriorated, but the two were able to mend fences, paving the way for Williams to become a regular on the "Louisiana Hayride," a regular Saturday night performance hosted by a radio station in Shreveport. Audrey Williams asked Rose if her husband could sing a song for him on that moment,[51] Rose agreed, and he liked Williams' musical style. 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. 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. The song resonated with music fans, as well as executives at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, who invited Williams to perform. He died in 1939, but his musical legacy would live on in Williams. He was severely injured after falling from a truck, breaking his collarbone and suffering a severe blow to the head. [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. It was at this time that Williams decided to change his name informally from Hiram to Hank. 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. She cried out, Hes gone gone over and over as firefighters helped her out. [9] Dr. P.H. A doctor was called to examine him. 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. Killorn stated that the fact that Carr told him it was Hank Williams caused him to remember the incident. .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.