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. [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. [132] Broadcast in 1949, the shows were recorded for the promotion of Hadacol. 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. Stars of the Grand Ole Opry were expected along with thousands of fans to bid farewell to Williams. 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. His father worked as a logger before entering the Veterans Administration hospital when young Hank was just six. [47] As a result of the new variety of his repertoire, Williams published his first songbook, Original Songs of Hank Williams. Discover Hank Williams' Death Car in Montgomery, Alabama: Cadillac where country's first big star was found dead. Omissions? 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. [122] On April 12, 2010, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded Williams a posthumous special citation that paid tribute to 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". [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. Tributes to Williams took place the day after his death. Advance ticket sales totaled $3,500. 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. Hank Williams decided he wanted to go ahead with the performances he had scheduled on . The newlyweds spent Christmas 1952 with Williamss mother in Montgomery. 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. His iconic status was amplified by his death at age 29 and by his reputation for hard living and heart-on-the-sleeve vulnerability. The Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a posthumous special citation in 2010 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". 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. [clarification needed][20], The body was transported to Montgomery on January 2. [16] Lillie Williams began booking show dates, negotiating prices and driving them to some of their shows. Payne gave Williams guitar lessons in exchange for money or meals prepared by Lillie. Corrections? [127] His great-grandson Coleman Finchum, son of Hank Williams III, released his debut single credited to IV and the Strange Band in 2021. The world he seemed to identify most with was the musical sounds that poured out of the radio and emanated from church choirs. .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. You wrote only what happened to you and the people around you, Advertiser columnist Allen Rankin wrote on the day of the funeral. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It is unimportant whether you liked his songs, whether in your opinion he created ugliness or beauty. [35] On March 12, 1953, Billie Jean Jones appeared before the Oklahoma committee. James Ellis Garner later played fiddle for him. [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. Among other fake titles he claimed to be a Doctor of Science. His funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium, with his casket placed on the flower-covered stage. 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. Under the name of Dr. C. W. Lemon he prescribed Williams with amphetamines, Seconal, chloral hydrate, and morphine.[6]. Williams wrote the lyrics and used the tune of Riley Puckett's "Dissatisfied". (An audio recording of the funeral begins at the 7:30 mark of the video below. 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. was honored with a Grammy nomination for Best Historical Album. In 1951, Williams hosted a 15-minute show for Mother's Best Flour on WSM radio. The identity of her famous father remained a mystery to her until her early twenties. 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. 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. 4. [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. [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. Keillor, Garrison. His childhood was also shaped by his spinal condition, spina bifida, which set him apart from other kids his age and fostered a sense of separation from the world around him. Hank Williams, Sr. was an American singer-songwriter and musician who had a net worth equal to $100 thousand at the time of his death after adjusting for inflation (approximately $10 thousand in 1953) 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. Despite his relatively brief career, he is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century, especially in country music. [84], A man named Lewis Fitzgerald (born 1943) claimed to be Williams' illegitimate son; he was the son of Marie McNeil, Williams' cousin. Celebrity Births Deaths and Ages Hank Williams Sr. Prior to that, duplicates were made and intended to be published by a third party. The suit demanded that both of the publishing companies continue to pay her half of the royalties from Hank Williams' records. Williams was pronounced dead a short while later. James E. (Jimmy) Porter was the youngest, being only 13 when he started playing steel guitar for Williams. "I saw that the overcoat and blanket that had been covering Hank had slipped off," Carr told yet another reporter. 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. For Hank to have lived even a normal life span, he would have had to avoid chemical dependence. Hank Williams, Sr. passed away on January 1, 1953 at 29 years old.Hank Williams Net Worth. [114] Many artists of the 1950s and 1960s, including Elvis Presley,[115] Bob Dylan, Tammy Wynette, David Houston, Jerry Lee Lewis, Merle Haggard,[116] Gene Vincent,[117] Carl Perkins,[118] Ricky Nelson, and Conway Twitty[119] recorded Williams' songs during their careers. 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. [120] The same year, Hank Williams: The Complete Mother's Best RecordingsPlus! [96] An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people passed by the silver casket, and the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. The marriage was technically invalid, since Sheppard's divorce from her previous husband did not comply with the legally required 60-day trial reconciliation. Montgomery, Alabama - Family at Hank Williams memorial unveiling. Williamss music itself was not especially groundbreaking, though he was a deft synthesizer of blues, honky-tonk country, western swing, and other genres. When new wife Billie. [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. Around this time, he met Billie Jean Jones, a girlfriend of country singer Faron Young, at the Grand Ole Opry. 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. [125][126] In July 2020, his granddaughter Katherine (Hank Jr.'s daughter) died in a car crash at the age of 27. In 2011, Williams' 1949 MGM number one hit, "Lovesick Blues", was inducted into the Recording Academy Grammy Hall of Fame. The Journal that day reported WSFA received hundreds of calls and telegrams requesting the station play his songs. 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. A doctor injected. In regards to her half-brother and where they stand today, Jett said: As far as having a personal relationship, we dont have like a brother-sister relationship, but we do get along; we do business and I think the world does realize that both of us have our dads best interest at heart.. On the weekend after the tour ended, Williams was photographed backstage at the Grand Ole Opry signing a motion picture deal with MGM. "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written and recorded in 1952 but released in 1953 after Williams's death. [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. 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. 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. Rock Icon KISS Is Saying Goodbye (For Real), Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Hank Williams, Birth Year: 1923, Birth date: September 17, 1923, Birth State: Alabama, Birth City: Mount Olive, Birth Country: United States. 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. 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.