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. The Georgiana . His funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium,[23] with his coffin placed on the flower-covered stage. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. 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. Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1952. During an initial hearing, Marshall insisted that he was a doctor, refusing to answer further statements. . Prior to that, duplicates were made and intended to be published by a third party. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It could be argued, in fact, that his early death only enhanced his legend. [35], Williams' successful radio show fueled his entry into a music career. In full support of Williams' musical aspirations was his mother, Lillie. A doctor injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that contained morphine. A doctor was called to examine him. A 3-CD selection of the tracks, restored by Joe Palmaccio, was released by Time-Life in October 2008 titled The Unreleased Recordings. In 1946 Williams landed a songwriting contract with Acuff-Rose Publications and began composing material for singer Molly ODay. [85], Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia, on December 31, 1952. In late 1951, he suffered a minor heart attack while visiting his sister in Florida. 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. Tributes to Williams took place the day after his death. Hank Williams, Sr. passed away on January 1, 1953 at 29 years old.Hank Williams Net Worth. [71] On December 13, 1951, he had a spinal fusion at the Vanderbilt University Hospital, being released on December 24. [24], There are several versions of how Williams got his first guitar. One famous person of Williams, Jr.'s . The prolific musician and performer wrote songs such as "Your Cheatin' Heart," drank too much whiskey, had family problems. [52] Rose signed Williams to a six-song contract, and leveraged this deal to sign Williams with Sterling Records. .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. [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. Marshall admitted that he had also prescribed chloral hydrate to his recently deceased wife, Faye, as a headache medicine. The Georgiana native hired a college student, Charles Carr, to drive him to perform a concert planned in Canton, Ohio. PolyGram contended that Williams' contract with MGM Records, whose back catalogue they owned at the time, prior to current owner Universal Music's absorption of PolyGram the next year, gave them rights to release the radio recordings. [78] His final concert was held in Austin, Texas, at the Skyline Club on December 19. In 1977, a national organization of CB truck drivers voted "Your Cheatin' Heart" as their favorite record of all time. [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.). A line of thousands filled two-and-a-half city blocks as the funeral procession carried Hank to Oakwood Cemetery. The funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium, where an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 attended while the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. She stated that she received after Williams' death a bill for $800 from Marshall for the treatment. 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. [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. His physical appearance diminished, too. Williams and her son, Hank Jr., became estranged after he turned 18. [125][126] In July 2020, his granddaughter Katherine (Hank Jr.'s daughter) died in a car crash at the age of 27. James E. (Jimmy) Porter was the youngest, being only 13 when he started playing steel guitar for Williams. Stamey. [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. 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. Williams said he did not, and those are believed to be his last words. Their son, Randall Hank Williams (now known as Hank Williams Jr.), was born on May 26, 1949. Discover Hank Williams' Death Car in Montgomery, Alabama: Cadillac where country's first big star was found dead. Another researcher decided it could have happened at any of the gas stations near Mount Hope. The album, named The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, was released on October 4, 2011. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. [132] Broadcast in 1949, the shows were recorded for the promotion of Hadacol. A year later he was entering talent shows and had his own band, Hank. What we do know is that Williams died when he was just 29 years old. On . [7] Because of an ice storm in the Nashville area that day, Williams could not fly, so he hired a college student, Charles Carr, to drive him to the concerts. Liquored up and abusing morphine, he collapsed in a hotel room in Knoxville, Tennessee. Elonzo was a railroad engineer for the W. T. Smith lumber company and was drafted during World War I, serving from July 1918 to June 1919. 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. 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. 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. [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. [32] During the same year, he participated in a talent show at the Empire Theater. [107] He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame[108] in 1961 and into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1985. Alternate titles: Hiram King Williams, the Hillbilly Shakespeare. Updates? [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. [28] His musical style contained influences from Payne along with several other country influences, among them Jimmie Rodgers, Moon Mullican, and Roy Acuff. [141] The original acetates made their way to the possession of Jett Williams. [135][136] The release won a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album. Payne gave Williams guitar lessons in exchange for money or meals prepared by Lillie. What began with Williams writing material for singer Molly O'Day eventually gave way to a record contract with the recently created MGM label. 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 music 's first superstar. The popular song "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" became a hit for Hank Williams in 1949. Carr later kept driving until he reached a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where Williams was discovered unresponsive in the back seat. The result of the original autopsy indicated that Williams died of a heart attack. Hank Williams is considered one of the most popular American country music singer/songwriters with songs like "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." [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. [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". Roy Acuff leads a host of country stars singing at the funeral of Hank Williams. The pain and anguish that led him to drink could be heard in his songs. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. As a result, he was not considered a reliable performer. 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 unfinished lyrics were later returned to Sony/ATV, which handed them to Bob Dylan in 2008 to complete the songs for a new album. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hank-Williams. Widely considered country music's first superstar, Hiram "Hank" Williams was born September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama. [25][26] Payne's base musical style was blues. They moved to a new house on the other side of town on Rose Street, which Williams' mother soon turned into another boarding house. Most of the material was written by Williams himself, in some cases with the help of Fred Rose and his son Wesley. Jett, whose legal name is Cathy Deupree Adkinson, was raised by Williams' mother for two years until she died. Instead of performing, Williams died 70 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1953. Picking up the guitar for the first time at the age of eight, Williams was just 13 when he made his radio debut. The day after Williams died, The Montgomery Advertiser recalled Williams as a former peanut vendor who learned to play guitar at age 6. 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. In 1947, he released "Move It on Over", which became a hit, and also joined the Louisiana Hayride radio program. 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. "[25] An estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people passed by the silver coffin, and the auditorium was filled with 2,750 mourners. [9] Dr. P.H. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. People from 35 states were said to have made the trip to say farewell to Hank. [8] He was of English and Welsh ancestry,[9][10][11][12] and he was also of Muscogee, Choctaw, and Cherokee descent. The local record shops reportedly sold all their Williams records, and customers were asking for all records ever released by Williams. But along with this early success came increased erratic behavior from Williams, who often showed up at live performances drunk. Due to Williams' excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. [17] Author Colin Escott concluded in his book Hank Williams: The Biography that the cause of death was heart failure caused by the combination of alcohol, morphine and chloral hydrate.[18]. 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". While living in Georgiana, Williams met Rufus "Tee-Tot" Payne, a street performer. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. 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. [50], On September 14, 1946, Williams auditioned for Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, but was rejected. [29] In 1937, Williams got into a fight with his physical education teacher about exercises the coach wanted him to do. His name was misspelled as "Hiriam" on his birth certificate, which was prepared and signed when he was 10 years old. 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. [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]. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. Little did he know that the woman he would fall in love with would be the key to his success. 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. They are in a bedroom in the home of Lillie (Hank Williams's mother) on North McDonough Street in Montgomery, Alabama. His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. They later had a daughter named Irene. The original members were guitarist Braxton Schuffert, fiddler Freddie Beach, and comedian Smith "Hezzy" Adair. Due to Williams' tour schedules, some of the shows were previously recorded to be played in his absence. His father worked as a logger before entering the Veterans Administration hospital when young Hank was just six. Williams wrote the lyrics and used the tune of Riley Puckett's "Dissatisfied". He was severely injured after falling from a truck, breaking his collarbone and suffering a severe blow to the head. [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. [94] He also wrote that Williams had been severely beaten and kicked in the groin recently (during a fight in a Montgomery bar a few days earlier), and local magistrate Virgil F. Lyons ordered an inquest into Williams' death concerning a welt that was visible on his head. [70], In November 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip with his fiddler Jerry Rivers in Franklin, Tennessee. If a song can't be written in 20 minutes, it ain't worth writing. 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. 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. 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. On New Year's Day 1953, he took his seat in the back of his 1952 powder blue Cadillac. Hiram "Hank" Williams died on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29. Montgomery, Alabama - Family at Hank Williams memorial unveiling. She cried out, Hes gone gone over and over as firefighters helped her out. 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. Despite his relatively brief career, he is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century, especially in country music. [133] In May 2014, further radio recordings by Williams were released. [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. By the early 1940s, he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville. [89] Dr. P. H. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain of morphine. Williams was pronounced dead a short while later. The president of MGM Records told Billboard magazine that the company got only about five requests for pictures of Williams during the weeks before his death, but over 300 afterwards. They hit it off, and Williams asked Sheppard to marry him almost immediately. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Getty Images. He formed the Drifting Cowboys backup band, which was managed by his mother, and dropped out of school to devote his time to his career. 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. Jones refused to pay, and further stated that Marshall later intended to convince her to pay him by assuring that he would "pave her the way to collect her husband's state". [138], After Williams' death, Audrey Williams filed a suit in Nashville against MGM Records and Acuff-Rose. Williams remains a beloved albeit tragic figure in country music and his work continues to influence musicians to this day. He was unresponsive and rigor mortis had already begun to set in. YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. A year after first meeting with Rose, Williams had his first hit, "Move It On Over." It is unimportant whether you liked his songs, whether in your opinion he created ugliness or beauty. The station's owner called the local police chief. The world he seemed to identify most with was the musical sounds that poured out of the radio and emanated from church choirs. His breakthrough moment came in 1949 with the release of Lovesick Blues, an old show tune that Williams parlayed into a chart-topping hit, an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and international fame. Williams had to cancel the concert due to an ice storm; he hired college student Charles Carr to drive him to his next appearance, a concert on New Year's Day 1953, at the Canton Memorial Auditorium in Canton, Ohio. [92] In Williams' Cadillac, the police found some empty beer cans and unfinished handwritten lyrics. 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. All rights reserved (About Us). Secondly,how did hank williams pass away? [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. Meanwhile, Lewis Fitzgerald's son Ricky billed himself as Hank Williams IV following his father's claim of being Williams' son. [15] He was born with spina bifida occulta, a birth defect of the spinal column, which gave him lifelong pain; this became a factor in his later alcohol and drug abuse. [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. Williams dropped out of school in October 1939 so that he and the Drifting Cowboys could work full-time. [102], Williams has been called "the King of Country Music" in popular culture. 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. It was something he apparently saw coming. 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. A doctor injected Williams with B12 and morphine and porters carried the legendary singer-songwriter to the car. Astrological Sign: Virgo, Death Year: 1953, Death date: January 1, 1953, Death State: West Virginia, Death City: Oak Hill, Death Country: United States, Article Title: Hank Williams Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/hank-williams, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: September 18, 2019, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. He told Hill that his mother was interested in talking to him about his problems and her need to collect Elonzo's disability pension.