[64][65] Some of the compositions were accompanied by a pipe organ. [135][136] The release won a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. [22] At a chance meeting in Georgiana, Williams met U.S. Representative J. Lister Hill while Hill was campaigning across Alabama. [24], There are several versions of how Williams got his first guitar. Chief Winfred Patterson who arrested Hank said to the Alabama Journal in 1971 that Hank was "more or less having DT's (delirium tremens). What we do know is that Williams died when he was just 29 years old. He also requested a doctor for Williams, as Williams was feeling the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he had drunk on the way from Montgomery to Knoxville. "Tom [Hiddleston, the actor portraying Williams] puts across that impending sense of doom. The album, named The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, was released on October 4, 2011. 29, January 1st 1953. In 1947, he released "Move It on Over", which became a hit, and also joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program. 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). He attributed the decision to Williams' declining career: "Most of his bookings were of the honky-tonk beer joint variety that he simply hated. Advance ticket sales totaled $3,500. His mother subsequently demanded that the school board terminate the coach; when they refused, the family moved to Montgomery, Alabama. 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. 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. The newlyweds spent Christmas 1952 with Williamss mother in Montgomery. Omissions? Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. 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. His father actually died January 1, 1953, and of course Jr was 3 years old. 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. 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. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. As a result, he was not considered a reliable performer. [8] He was of English and Welsh ancestry,[9][10][11][12] and he was also of Muscogee, Choctaw, and Cherokee descent. He was very kind, and said Oak Hill General Hospital was six miles on my left," and that would place him in Mount Hope. His father was a Mason and his mother was a member of the. 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. 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. [84], A man named Lewis Fitzgerald (born 1943) claimed to be Williams' illegitimate son; he was the son of Marie McNeil, Williams' cousin. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hank-Williams. Due to Williams' tour schedules, some of the shows were previously recorded to be played in his absence. The song, backed by "Kaw-Liga", was No. [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 Sheppard lived and worked together in Mobile. Stamey. Due to Williams' excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. After an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart.". The station's owner called the local police chief. Hank Williams died of drug and alcohol abuse at the age of 29. [13][14], As a child, Williams was nicknamed "Harm" by his family and "Herky" or "Skeets" by his friends. At a Veterans Affairs clinic in Pensacola, Florida, doctors determined that the cause was a brain aneurysm, and Elonzo was sent to the VA Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana. 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. [23] Despite his medical condition, the family managed fairly well financially throughout the Great Depression. The authors of Hank Williams: The Biography pointed out that "Hank" sounded more "like a hillbilly and western star" than "Hiram". Williams, who wrote most of his songs himself, crafted direct, emotionally honest lyrics that had a poetic simplicity that spoke not only to fans of country and western music but to a much broader audience, as evidenced by the pop hit crooner Tony Bennett had with his cover of Cold, Cold Heart in 1951. He remained hospitalized for eight years, rendering him mostly absent throughout Williams' childhood. Now free to travel without Williams' schooling taking precedence, the band could tour as far away as western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. . Because a corpse was involved, Stamey called in radio officer Howard Janney. "[34], On March 10, Marshall was called again to testify. Jones agreed to Williams's terms. [78] His final concert was held in Austin, Texas, at the Skyline Club on December 19. [92] In Williams' Cadillac, the police found some empty beer cans and unfinished handwritten lyrics. While Jett was a college junior at the University of Alabama in Montgomery majoring in recreation therapy, her adoptive . [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. 7. "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'. [105] Williams had 11 number one country hits in his career ("Lovesick Blues", "Long Gone Lonesome Blues", "Why Don't You Love Me", "Moanin' the Blues", "Cold, Cold Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)", "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive", "Kaw-Liga", "Your Cheatin' Heart", and "Take These Chains from My Heart"), as well as many other top 10 hits. 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. [59] On May 21, he had been admitted to North Louisiana Sanitarium for the treatment of his alcoholism, leaving on May 24. 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. 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. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. 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. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. The recordings were found by collector George Gimarc at radio station KSIB in Creston, Iowa. By the end of 1952, Williams had started to suffer heart problems. 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. [98][99] Williams' remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. Lyons recalled how Hank rose from being a shoeshine boy to star of the stage. Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1952. However, she was to marry someone else before the . [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. In 1952, he divorced Sheppard and married singer Billie Jean Horton. He told Hill that his mother was interested in talking to him about his problems and her need to collect Elonzo's disability pension. 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. This addiction eventually led to his divorce from Audrey Williams and his dismissal from the Grand Ole Opry. 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. Marshall stated that Williams told him that he had decided to "destroy the Hank Williams that was making the money they were getting". Arthur Whiting was also a guitarist for the Drifting Cowboys. His substance abuse problems continued to spiral out of control as he moved to Nashville and officially divorced Sheppard. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. He wrote songs weekly to perform during the shows. By the time he'd moved with his mother to Montgomery in 1937, Williams' music career was already in motion. Instead, Williams died 67 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1953. The recordings, which Legacy Entertainment acquired in 1997, include live versions of Williams' hits and his cover version of other songs. An immensely talented songwriter and an impassioned vocalist, he also experienced great crossover success in the popular music market. In 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip in Tennessee, reactivating his old back pains. Later life and death. It was placed in a silver coffin that was first shown at his mother's boarding house at 318 McDounough Street for two days. 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. [77] The next day, two public ceremonies were held at the New Orleans Civic Auditorium, where 14,000 seats were sold for each. His funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium,[23] with his coffin placed on the flower-covered stage. [71] During his recovery, he lived with his mother in Montgomery, and later moved to Nashville with Ray Price. 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. In late 1951, he suffered a minor heart attack while visiting his sister in Florida. [103][104] Alabama governor Gordon Persons officially proclaimed September 21 "Hank Williams Day". Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked Williams if he wanted to eat. 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. Marshall had been previously convicted for forgery, and had been paroled and released from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1951. Hank Williams Jr. was performing his father, Hank Sr.'s, songs on stage at age 8. 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. 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. Carr talked to Williams for the last time when they stopped at a restaurant in Bristol, Virginia. As people across his native Alabama picked up their newspapers that day, they were greeted with the tragic news Williams had died. 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 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". [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. [125][126] In July 2020, his granddaughter Katherine (Hank Jr.'s daughter) died in a car crash at the age of 27. However, much of what led to his non-sobriety is exactly what made his music as good as it was. [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. [107] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame[108] in 1961 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. By the end of 1952, Williams had started to have heart problems. 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. The Journal that day reported WSFA received hundreds of calls and telegrams requesting the station play his songs. A line of thousands filled two-and-a-half city blocks as the funeral procession carried Hank to Oakwood Cemetery. 1 on the country charts for six weeks. [10] Carr and Williams headed out of Knoxville from the Andrew Johnson Hotel via Gay Street to Magnolia Ave to 11w. 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. In ways that must have seemed unimaginable to this poor country boy, Williams' life quickly changed. There was desire, burden, fear, ambition, reverse after reverse, bitter disappointment, joy, success, sympathy, love for people. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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. [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. Picking up the guitar for the first time at the age of eight, Williams was just 13 when he made his radio debut. 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. [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. While living in Georgiana, Williams met Rufus "Tee-Tot" Payne, a street performer. That night, the singers body was taken back to Montgomery. He was scheduled to perform a few gigs on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to see in. In 1946 Williams landed a songwriting contract with Acuff-Rose Publications and began composing material for singer Molly ODay. Roy Acuff leads a host of country stars singing at the funeral of Hank Williams. The two were often rivals for Williams' time and attention. He died in the back seat of his Cadillac while being driven to a gig on New Year's Day 1953. Killorn stated that the fact that Carr told him it was Hank Williams caused him to remember the incident. [36] So many listeners contacted the radio station asking for more of "the singing kid", possibly influenced by his mother, that the producers hired him to host his own 15-minute show twice a week for a weekly salary of US$15 (equivalent to $300 in 2021). The unfinished lyrics were later returned to Sony/ATV, which handed them to Bob Dylan in 2008 to complete the songs for a new album. Many of their replacements refused to play in the band due to Williams' worsening alcoholism. Carr was 17, a freshman on break from Auburn. Under the name of Dr. C. W. Lemon he prescribed Williams with amphetamines, Seconal, chloral hydrate, and morphine, which made his heart problems worse. After school and on weekends, Williams sang and played his Silvertone guitar on the sidewalk in front of the WSFA radio studio. [29] Around two tons of flowers were sent. Regardless, Carr said he next drove to "a cut-rate gas station". Hank Williams Sr. was 29 Years, 3 Months, 15 Days old. Among the hits he wrote were "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". [113] In the 1980 Canadian film, Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave, Williams is portrayed by singer Sneezy Waters. People from 35 states were said to have made the trip to say farewell to Hank. After the failure of his audition, Williams and Audrey Sheppard attempted to interest the recently formed music publishing firm Acuff-Rose Music. [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. [71] On December 13, 1951, he had a spinal fusion at the Vanderbilt University Hospital, being released on December 24. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he recorded 55 singles (five released posthumously) that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, including 12 that reached No. [106], On February 8, 1960, Williams' star was placed at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After recording "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" with Sterling Records, he signed a contract with MGM Records. Later that year he received his first recording contract, with Sterling Records; however, it was on the start-up label MGM that he had his first hit, Move It on Over in 1947. On the weekend after the tour ended, Williams was photographed backstage at the Grand Ole Opry signing a motion picture deal with MGM. Montgomery, Alabama - Family at Hank Williams memorial unveiling. Hank Williams was an aspiring country music singer when he first met Audrey Williams. 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. 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. [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. The material was restored and remastered by Michael Graves and released by Omnivore Recordings. From The Montgomery Advertiser. [17] From that time on, Lillie assumed responsibility for the family. Died On: 1953: How old was Hank Williams Sr.? What began with Williams writing material for singer Molly O'Day eventually gave way to a record contract with the recently created MGM label. One famous person of Williams, Jr.'s . 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. 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. The suit demanded that both of the publishing companies continue to pay her half of the royalties from Hank Williams' records. [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. He was one of the finest young men that we ever knew, Acuff said. 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. 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. The important thing is that he made millions of people happy, an editorial in The Advertiser stated on Jan. 3, 1953. was honored with a Grammy nomination for Best Historical Album. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [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. He was driving Hank Williams, 29, who died that night. Williams had married his second wife, Billie Jean Jones in October 1952, as 14,000 people looked on in Louisiana where Williams hosted radio shows after being fired from the Grand Ole Opry in August of that year. 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). Born and raised in Alabama, Williams was given guitar lessons by African-American blues musician Rufus Payne in exchange for meals or money. A. [3] In October 1952, he married Billie Jean Jones. As his success deepened, so did Williams' dependence on alcohol and morphine. [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. Corrections? [37], In August 1938, Elonzo Williams was temporarily released from the hospital. [46], In 1945, when he was back in Montgomery, Williams started to perform again for the WSFA radio station. 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". It's hard to know another's lips will kiss you And hold you just the way I used to do During World War II Williams commuted between Mobile, where he worked in a shipyard, and Montgomery, where he pursued a musical career. By the early 1940s, he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville. 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. Jett did not learn that she was Williams' daughter until the early 1980s. 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 world he seemed to identify most with was the musical sounds that poured out of the radio and emanated from church choirs. Police found empty beer cans and unfinished song lyrics in the Cadillac where Williams died. [54] After a few more moderate hits, in 1949 he released his version of the 1922 Cliff Friend and Irving Mills song "Lovesick Blues",[55] made popular by Rex Griffin. [97] His funeral was said to have been far larger than any ever held for any other citizen of Alabama, and the largest event ever held in Montgomery. On the evening of December 30, 1952, the restless, rail-thin 29-year-old tossed and turned in bed at his home in Montgomery, Ala. [43] The book only listed lyrics, since its main purpose was to attract more audiences, though it is also possible that he did not want to pay for transcribing the notes. He was unable to read or notate music to any significant degree. 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. His hair began falling out, and he put on 30 extra pounds. A doctor injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that contained morphine. 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. The marriage was technically invalid, since Sheppard's divorce from her previous husband did not comply with the legally required 60-day trial reconciliation. 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. 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. Since the revelation of her famous father, she initiated legal claims to his estate and battled her half-brother, who refused to acknowledge her for a long time. In 1946, Williams traveled to Nashville to meet with music publisher Fred Rose and the Acuff-Rose Publications company. [102], Williams has been called "the King of Country Music" in popular culture. 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. Hank Williams was born Hiram Williams[3] on September 17, 1923,[4] in the rural community of Mount Olive in Butler County, Alabama. [63] The songs depicted Luke the Drifter traveling around from place to place, narrating stories of different characters and philosophizing about life. Wiki User. In 1977, a national organization of CB truck drivers voted "Your Cheatin' Heart" as their favorite record of all time. Jones declared "I have never accepted the report that my husband died of a heart attack. But along with this early success came increased erratic behavior from Williams, who often showed up at live performances drunk. Williams dropped out of school in October 1939 so that he and the Drifting Cowboys could work full-time. 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. Is Hank Williams Sr single? A year later he was entering talent shows and had his own band, Hank. She cried out, Hes gone gone over and over as firefighters helped her out. Malinin found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of [the] right ventricle of [the] heart."