Williams wrote the lyrics and used the tune of Riley Puckett's "Dissatisfied". 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. 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. Instead, Williams died 67 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1953. [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. Liquored up and abusing morphine, he collapsed in a hotel room in Knoxville, Tennessee. [16] The couple divorced on May 29, 1952. 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. 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. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. Williams and her son, Hank Jr., became estranged after he turned 18. Hank Williams was an aspiring country music singer when he first met Audrey Williams. No, Hank Williams Sr is not single. [34] 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. 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. The album included unreleased songs. In 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip in Tennessee, reactivating his old back pains. Omissions? He was driving Hank Williams, 29, who died that night. Due to Williams' tour schedules, some of the shows were previously recorded to be played in his absence. . 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. . [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". Date Of Birth : 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). The set was re-released on Hank Williams: The Legend Begins in 2011. 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. Payne,[1] along with Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb,[2] had a major influence on Williams' later musical style. [35], Williams' successful radio show fueled his entry into a music career. Williams said he did not, and those are believed to be his last words. Most of the material was written by Williams himself, in some cases with the help of Fred Rose and his son Wesley. Hank Williams decided he wanted to go ahead with the performances he had scheduled on . Less than 48 hours later, Hank Williams was dead. Due to Williams' excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. After recording "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" with Sterling Records, he signed a contract with MGM Records. Heart failure and hard living did him in. Died On: 1953: How old was 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. Carr was exhausted and, according to the police reports, nervous enough to invite suspicion that foul play had been involved in Williams' death. 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. 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. Carr was 17, a freshman on break from Auburn. "[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. He was very kind, and said Oak Hill General Hospital was six miles on my left," and that would place him in Mount Hope. 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." Hank jr. was three years old when his father died in 1959. Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1952. [58] He brought together Bob McNett (guitar), Hillous Butrum (bass), Jerry Rivers (fiddle) and Don Helms (steel guitar) to form the most famous version of the Drifting Cowboys, earning an estimated $1,000 per show (equivalent to $11,400 in 2021) That year Audrey Williams gave birth to Randall Hank Williams (Hank Williams Jr.). But coupled with Williams' obvious talents as a singer and songwriter was an increasing dependence on alcohol, which he'd started abusing in order to relieve his sometimes excruciating back pain. [28] His musical style contained influences from Payne along with several other country influences, among them Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, and Roy Acuff. At cafes across the South, the paper added, his songs blared over radios as news of his death spread. 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. He purchased the DSC title for $35 from the "Chicago School of Applied Science"; in the diploma, he requested that the DSc was spelled out as "Doctor of Science and Psychology". As a result, he was not considered a reliable performer. [22] At a chance meeting in Georgiana, Williams met U.S. Representative J. Lister Hill while Hill was campaigning across Alabama. [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. He acknowledged that in previous testimony he had falsely claimed to be a physician. 1 (three posthumously). 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. 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. In 1946 Williams landed a songwriting contract with Acuff-Rose Publications and began composing material for singer Molly ODay. Hank jr. was three years old when his father died in 1959 His father actually died January 1, 1953, and of course Jr was 3 years old. [13][14], As a child, Williams was nicknamed "Harm" by his family and "Herky" or "Skeets" by his friends. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [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. His funeral was held the next day, Sunday Jan. 4, 1953, at Montgomerys City Auditorium. Here are more vintage images and stories of Alabamas past. Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked Williams if he wanted to eat. He died in 1939, but his musical legacy would live on in Williams. 4. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. The Journal that day reported WSFA received hundreds of calls and telegrams requesting the station play his songs. She worked in a cannery and served as a night-shift nurse in the local hospital. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. 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. Carr drove through the night as Williams declined his offer to stop for food. Williams' personal life took a major turn in 1943 when he met Audrey Mae Sheppard, who was the mother of a young daughter and had only recently left a messy marriage. The popular song "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" became a hit for Hank Williams in 1949. On the weekend after the tour ended, Williams was photographed backstage at the Grand Ole Opry signing a motion picture deal with MGM. [4], Due to Williams's excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. [75], On August 11, 1952, Williams was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness and missing shows. 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. Williams had also married Sheppard before her divorce was final, on the 10th day of a required 60-day reconciliation period. Celebrity Births Deaths and Ages Hank Williams Sr. 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. [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. The fall reactivated his old back pains. In late 1951, he suffered a minor heart attack while visiting his sister in Florida. The house had a small garden on which they grew diverse crops that Williams and his sister Irene sold around Georgiana. He denied any responsibility in both deaths. [3] In October 1952, he married Billie Jean Jones. [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). 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. In June, he divorced Audrey Williams,[2] and on August 11, Williams was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness. Author Colin Escott concluded in his . Hank Williams was born Hiram Williams[3] on September 17, 1923,[4] in the rural community of Mount Olive in Butler County, Alabama.
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