[10] Carr and Williams headed out of Knoxville from the Andrew Johnson Hotel via Gay Street to Magnolia Ave to 11w. Probably taught his first chords by Payne, Williams began playing the guitar at age 8. 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 musics first superstar. [131] In 1993, a double-disc set of recordings of Williams for the Health & Happiness Show was released. [75], On August 11, 1952, Williams was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry for habitual drunkenness and missing shows. [6] The family's first child, Ernest Huble Williams, was born on July 5, 1921; he died two days later. "[25] An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people passed by the silver coffin, and the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. 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. 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. 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. A year later he was entering talent shows and had his own band, Hank. "[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. The break had to come, he added. Among the hits he wrote were "Your Cheatin' Heart", "Hey, Good Lookin'", and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". His life and music received a fresh look in 2019 with Ken Burns' 16-hour documentary, Country Music, which prominently featured the icon in an episode titled "The Hillbilly Shakespeare.". [11] Carr later drove on until he stopped for fuel at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where he discovered Williams seemingly asleep in the back seat. 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. Charles Carr told the AJC in 2002 he was the only witness when Hank Williams died. Jones agreed to Williams's terms. [53], Williams signed with MGM Records in 1947 and released "Move It on Over"; considered an early example of rock and roll music, the song became a country hit. Later life and death. Williams later credited him as his only teacher. [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.). [9] Dr. P.H. Picking up the guitar for the first time at the age of eight, Williams was just 13 when he made his radio debut. All Rights Reserved. Williams had also married Sheppard before her divorce was final, on the 10th day of a required 60-day reconciliation period. Under the name of Dr. C. W. Lemon he prescribed Williams with amphetamines, Seconal, chloral hydrate, and morphine.[6]. Less than 48 hours later, Hank Williams was dead. [86] Fitzgerald was interviewed, and he suggested that Lillie Williams operated a brothel at her boarding house in Montgomery. [48] With Williams beginning to be recognized as a songwriter,[49] Sheppard became his manager and occasionally accompanied him on duets in some of his live concerts. [25][26] Payne's base musical style was blues. [16] Williams' father was frequently relocated by the lumber company railway for which he worked, and the family lived in many southern Alabama towns. Lillie Williams became the Drifting Cowboys' manager. If this world should last a thousand years, Lyons said, Hank shall remain dear to millions of hearts.. "I think he had a profound sadness in him," says Marc Abraham, writer and director of I Saw The Light. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. While Jett was a college junior at the University of Alabama in Montgomery majoring in recreation therapy, her adoptive . 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. Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked Williams if he wanted to eat. [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. 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. As people across his native Alabama picked up their newspapers that day, they were greeted with the tragic news Williams had died. This addiction eventually led to his divorce from Audrey Williams and his dismissal from the Grand Ole Opry. The fall reactivated his old back pains. [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. His father was a Mason and his mother was a member of the. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. With Hill's help, the family began collecting the money. The pain and anguish that led him to drink could be heard in his songs. [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. The album included unreleased songs. (An audio recording of the funeral begins at the 7:30 mark of the video below. The janitor was accused of theft, but the charges were later dropped when a judge determined that her version of events was true. He remained hospitalized for eight years, rendering him mostly absent throughout Williams' childhood. The result of the original autopsy indicated that Williams died of a heart attack. Hank Williams died of drug and alcohol abuse at the age of 29. After an autopsy, the cause of death was determined to be "insufficiency of the right ventricle of the heart.". [1] His alcoholism worsened in 1952. One famous person of Williams, Jr.'s . [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. Williamss music itself was not especially groundbreaking, though he was a deft synthesizer of blues, honky-tonk country, western swing, and other genres. Later, he started to consume painkillers, including morphine, and alcohol to ease the pain. [38] The same day, the District Attorney's office declared that after a new review of the autopsy report of Faye Marshall, toxicological and microscopic tests confirmed that her death on March 3 was not related to the medication prescribed by her husband. [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. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [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]. 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. Montgomery, Alabama - Family at Hank Williams memorial unveiling. 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. 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. 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. 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 was driving Hank Williams, 29, who died that night. Williams, who was recently separated from WSM "for failure to make appearances," was a resident of Montgomery, Ala. As a youth he sold peanuts and shined shoes, meanwhile strumming on a. [120] The same year, Hank Williams: The Complete Mother's Best RecordingsPlus! Later on, Williams recorded "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It", one of the songs that Payne taught him. Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1952. Williams and her son, Hank Jr., became estranged after he turned 18. was honored with a Grammy nomination for Best Historical Album. A picture from the past came slowly stealing As I brushed your arm and walked so close to you Then suddenly I got that old time feeling I can't help it if I'm still in love with you. [62] The newlyweds spent Christmas 1952 with Williamss mother in Montgomery. [15] That evening, when the announcer at Canton announced Williams's death to the gathered crowd, they started laughing, thinking that it was just another excuse. Marshall gave Cunningham a list of his patients, including Hank Williams. [102], Williams has been called "the King of Country Music" in popular culture. The 27-year-old was driving the car, which was. In late 1951, he suffered a minor heart attack while visiting his sister in Florida. 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. In February 2005, the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling stating that Williams' heirsson, Hank Williams Jr, and daughter, Jett Williamshave the sole rights to sell his recordings made for a Nashville radio station in 1951. Updates? His funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium,[23] with his coffin placed on the flower-covered stage. Jett was 21 when she realized Williams could be her biological father. [46], In 1945, when he was back in Montgomery, Williams started to perform again for the WSFA radio station. Copy. [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. Hank Williams became one of America's first country music superstars, with hits like "Your Cheatin' Heart," before his early death at 29. Williams' son, Hank Williams Jr., and widow, Billie Jean Williams Berlin, currently split the royalties. Picking up the guitar for the first time at the age of eight, Williams was just 13 when he made his radio debut. [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. Roy Acuff leads a host of country stars singing at the funeral of Hank Williams. The marriage was technically invalid, since Sheppard's divorce from her previous husband did not comply with the legally required 60-day trial reconciliation. [73] That same year, Williams had a brief extramarital affair with dancer Bobbie Jett, with whom he fathered a daughter, Jett Williams. Malinin found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of [the] right ventricle of [the] heart." They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Sheppard, it seems, was extremely eager to make a mark in show business and, despite her obviously limited talent, pushed her husband to let her sing.