Lyons recalled how Hank rose from being a shoeshine boy to star of the stage. The result of the original autopsy indicated that Williams died of a heart attack. This addiction eventually led to his divorce from Audrey Williams and his dismissal from the Grand Ole Opry. 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. Prior to that, duplicates were made and intended to be published by a third party. [127] His great-grandson Coleman Finchum, son of Hank Williams III, released his debut single credited to IV and the Strange Band in 2021. His first wife and his mother were the driving forces behind having the marriage declared invalid, and they pursued the matter for years. [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 severely injured after falling from a truck, breaking his collarbone and suffering a severe blow to the head. However, much of what led to his non-sobriety is exactly what made his music as good as it was. Audrey Williams divorced him that year; the next day he recorded "You Win Again" and "I Won't be Home No More". In 1947, he released "Move It on Over", which became a hit, and also joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program. 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". [34] Williams told a story in later concerts that attributed his name change to a cat's yowling. Hank Williams Sr. was 29 Years, 3 Months, 15 Days old. She was a headstrong, recently divorced mother of a 2-year-old, six months his senior and also a musician. [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. Roy Acuff leads a host of country stars singing at the funeral of Hank Williams. [71] On December 13, 1951, he had a spinal fusion at the Vanderbilt University Hospital, being released on December 24. Williams and her son, Hank Jr., became estranged after he turned 18. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. Since Williams' parents were both followers of Freemasonry,[7] Williams was named after Hiram I. [28] His musical style contained influences from Payne along with several other country influences, among them Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, and Roy Acuff. He died of a heart attack at the age of 29 in 1953 in the backseat of his Cadillac. He was unresponsive and rigor mortis had already begun to set in. He remained hospitalized for eight years, rendering him mostly absent throughout Williams' childhood. Williams married singer Audrey Sheppard, who was his manager for nearly a decade. "I saw that the overcoat and blanket that had been covering Hank had slipped off," Carr told yet another reporter. The authors of Hank Williams: The Biography pointed out that "Hank" sounded more "like a hillbilly and western star" than "Hiram". [106], On February 8, 1960, Williams' star was placed at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was driving Hank Williams, 29, who died that night. Williams, Sheppard, and the Drifting Cowboys band in 1951 The American entry into World War II in 1941 marked the beginning of hard times for Williams. Is Hank Williams Sr single? Instead, Williams died 67 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1953. The pain and anguish that led him to drink could be heard in his songs. [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. He died in the back seat of his Cadillac while being driven to a gig on New Year's Day 1953. Widely considered country music's first superstar, Hiram "Hank" Williams was born September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama. One famous person of Williams, Jr.'s . Years of back pain, alcoholism, and prescription drug abuse severely compromised Williams' health. [93] Dr. Ivan Malinin performed the autopsy at the Tyree Funeral House. The album, named The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, was released on October 4, 2011. A doctor injected Williams with B12 and morphine and porters carried the legendary singer-songwriter to the car. The station's owner called the local police chief. [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. Montgomery, Alabama - Family at Hank Williams memorial unveiling. [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. Advance ticket sales totaled $3,500. Carr later kept driving until he reached a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where Williams was discovered unresponsive in the back seat. She drove her son and his band to shows throughout southern Alabama. Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia. [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. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. "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. [98][99] Williams' remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. Williams' mother had claimed that he was dead. James Ellis Garner later played fiddle for him. He attributed the decision to Williams' declining career: "Most of his bookings were of the honky-tonk beer joint variety that he simply hated. While her son was not on the stage, his song I Saw The Light opened the show. 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. His mother was Audrey, and his step mothers were Bobbie Jett, who had his stepsister, and Billie Gean who was a widow just months after she married Williams, Sr. (Williams para.14). Hank Williams was just 29-years-old when he died, but had lived quite a life in his short years. A quick study, Williams learned how to play folk, country and, thanks to an African-American street musician named Rufus Payne, the blues. Williams and Sheppard married in 1944. [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. [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. They are in a bedroom in the home of Lillie (Hank Williams's mother) on North McDonough Street in Montgomery, Alabama. A rookie Tennessee highway patrol officer, Swann Kitts, told reporters he had stopped the Cadillac and fined Carr $25 for speeding, The United Press reported on Jan. 2, 1952. "[36], On March 19, Marshall declared that he felt Williams was depressed and committed suicide by taking a higher dose of the drugs he had prescribed. Now free to travel without Williams' schooling taking precedence, the band could tour as far away as western Georgia and the Florida Panhandle. Carr requested a doctor for Williams, who was feeling the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he consumed on the way from Montgomery. 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. When he played on his guitar, he played on the heart-strings of millions, pastor Henry Lyons of Highland Avenue Baptist Church told the crowd gathered on Perry Street. 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. The worker claimed that she sold Williams' notes to a representative of the Honky-Tonk Hall of Fame and the Rock-N-Roll Roadshow. A doctor injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that contained morphine. [33], He never learned to read music; instead he based his compositions in storytelling and personal experience. "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 . The day after Williams died, The Montgomery Advertiser recalled Williams as a former peanut vendor who learned to play guitar at age 6. In 1948, he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, and he joined the Louisiana Hayride, a radio show broadcast that propelled him into living rooms all over the Southeast appearing on weekend shows. [102], Williams has been called "the King of Country Music" in popular culture. Hank Williams Sr. Williams wrote the lyrics and used the tune of Riley Puckett's "Dissatisfied". Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1952. Williams had also married Sheppard before her divorce was final, on the 10th day of a required 60-day reconciliation period. 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. The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, a series of publicity segments for plant nursery Naughton Farms originally aired in 1950. The important thing is that he made millions of people happy, an editorial in The Advertiser stated on Jan. 3, 1953. Carr was exhausted and, according to the police reports, nervous enough to invite suspicion that foul play had been involved in Williams' death. The two were often rivals for Williams' time and attention. 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. Montgomery, Alabama Hank Williams was country music's first megastar. [84], A man named Lewis Fitzgerald (born 1943) claimed to be Williams' illegitimate son; he was the son of Marie McNeil, Williams' cousin. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. [77] It was the second marriage for both (each being divorced with children). Hank Williams became one of America's first country music superstars, with hits like "Your Cheatin' Heart," before his early death at 29. [86] Fitzgerald was interviewed, and he suggested that Lillie Williams operated a brothel at her boarding house in Montgomery. Best Answer. He denied any responsibility in both deaths. As a result, he was not considered a reliable performer. But along with this early success came increased erratic behavior from Williams, who often showed up at live performances drunk. He was dismissed by the Grand Ole Opry because of his unreliability and alcoholism. [29] In 1937, Williams got into a fight with his physical education teacher about exercises the coach wanted him to do. 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. Around this time, he met Billie Jean Jones, a girlfriend of country singer Faron Young, at the Grand Ole Opry. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Williamss music itself was not especially groundbreaking, though he was a deft synthesizer of blues, honky-tonk country, western swing, and other genres. [128], In 2006, a janitor of Sony/ATV Music Publishing found in a dumpster the unfinished lyrics written by Williams that had been found in his car the night he died. [8] Williams and Carr departed from Montgomery, Alabama at around 1:00p.m. Williams arrived at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Carr checked in at 7:08 p.m and ordered two steaks in the lobby to be delivered to their rooms from the hotel's restaurant. The couple were married in 1944 at a Texaco Station in Andalusia, Alabama, by a justice of the peace. [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. [5] He was the third child of Jessie Lillybelle "Lillie" (ne Skipper) (18981955) with Elonzo Huble "Lon" Williams (18911970). He died in 1939, but his musical legacy would live on in Williams. 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. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. "[34], On March 10, Marshall was called again to testify. When he tried to move his hands, they snapped back to the same position the hotel porters had arranged him in. Arthur Whiting was also a guitarist for the Drifting Cowboys. 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." 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. 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. Malinin found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of [the] right ventricle of [the] heart." [107] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame[108] in 1961 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985. 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. In the 1970s, he created his own musical identity, combining country with Southern rock and blues. Among the hits he wrote were "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". (An audio recording of the funeral begins at the 7:30 mark of the video below. When new wife Billie. The recordings were found by collector George Gimarc at radio station KSIB in Creston, Iowa. 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. 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. Both women had been using the description professionally. [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. [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. [85], Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia, on December 31, 1952. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. 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. Police found empty beer cans and unfinished song lyrics in the Cadillac where Williams died. [33] In 1943, Williams met Audrey Sheppard at a medicine show in Banks, Alabama. [132] Broadcast in 1949, the shows were recorded for the promotion of Hadacol. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. On New Year's Day 1953, he took his seat in the back of his 1952 powder blue Cadillac. Williams dropped out of school in October 1939 so that he and the Drifting Cowboys could work full-time. 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". Stamey. What we do know is that Williams died when he was just 29 years old. Later life and death. I told Carr that Williams looked dead but I did not press the point when Carr explained that Williams had been given two sedatives, Kitts was quoted as saying. One characteristic of Williams' recordings as "Luke the Drifter" is the use of narration rather than singing. The court rejected claims made by PolyGram Records and Legacy Entertainment in releasing recordings Williams made for the Mother's Best Flour Show. Copy. Most of the material was written by Williams himself, in some cases with the help of Fred Rose and his son Wesley. [96] An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people passed by the silver casket, and the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. A doctor injected. More than half of the 66 recordings he would make under his own name (he also released a string of religious-themed recordings under the name Luke the Drifter) were Top Ten country and western hits, many of them reaching number one, including Cold, Cold Heart, Your Cheatin Heart, Hey, Good Lookin, Jambalaya (On the Bayou), and Ill Never Get Out of This World Alive. His extraordinary Lost Highway peaked at number 12. [62] [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". [101] Released in July, "I Won't Be Home No More" went to No. In 1951, Williams hosted a 15-minute show for Mother's Best Flour on WSM radio. However, his plaintive, bluesy phrasing was unique and became a touchstone of country music. The song, backed by "Kaw-Liga", was No. Williams' version became a huge country hit; the song stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for four consecutive months,[56] and gained Williams a place in the Grand Ole Opry. 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. Jett did not learn that she was Williams' daughter until the early 1980s. [79], On December 15, 1944, Williams married Audrey Sheppard. Died On: 1953: How old was Hank Williams Sr.? [33], As part of an investigation of illicit drug traffic conducted by the Oklahoma legislature, representative Robert Cunningham seized Marshall's files. 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. 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. He wrote songs weekly to perform during the shows. Hank Williams, Jr., was only 3 years old when his father died ("Hank".Bio para.4). Due to Williams' excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. Williams remains a beloved albeit tragic figure in country music and his work continues to influence musicians to this day. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain (16.2 mg) of morphine. 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. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! He was one of the finest young men that we ever knew, Acuff said. Jones declared "I have never accepted the report that my husband died of a heart attack. . They hit it off, and Williams asked Sheppard to marry him almost immediately. He returned to Shreveport, Louisiana, to perform on KWKH and WBAM shows and in the Louisiana Hayride, for which he toured again. In full support of Williams' musical aspirations was his mother, Lillie. [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. [90], At around midnight on January 1, 1953, when the two crossed the Tennessee state line and arrived in Bristol, Virginia, Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked Williams if he wanted to eat. [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. .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. [32] During the same year, he participated in a talent show at the Empire Theater.