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. 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. His mother stated that she bought it with money from selling peanuts, but many other prominent residents of the town claimed to have been the one who purchased the guitar for him. All Rights Reserved. His stardom put money in his pocket and gave him the kind of creative freedom artists long for. [70], In November 1951, Williams fell during a hunting trip with his fiddler Jerry Rivers in Franklin, Tennessee. His funeral took place on January 4 at the Montgomery Auditorium,[23] with his coffin placed on the flower-covered stage. 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. His mother adopted Jett, who was made a ward of the state after her grandmother died and then adopted by another couple. Hiram "Hank" Williams died on January 1, 1953, at the age of 29. [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. Picking up the guitar for the first time at the age of eight, Williams was just 13 when he made his radio debut. Despite his physical failings, Williams was cleared for more travel. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (each updated 1/26/2023). He remained hospitalized for eight years, rendering him mostly absent throughout Williams' childhood. While Jett was a college junior at the University of Alabama in Montgomery majoring in recreation therapy, her adoptive . On . [102], Williams has been called "the King of Country Music" in popular culture. Williams was an American singer-songwriter and musician regarded as one of the most significant country music artists of all time. At cafes across the South, the paper added, his songs blared over radios as news of his death spread. It was something he apparently saw coming. Chief Winfred Patterson who arrested Hank said to the Alabama Journal in 1971 that Hank was "more or less having DT's (delirium tremens). His first wife and his mother were the driving forces behind having the marriage declared invalid, and they pursued the matter for years. .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. [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. [26] His final single released during his lifetime was ironically titled "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." [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. Around this time, he met Billie Jean Jones, a girlfriend of country singer Faron Young, at the Grand Ole Opry. Around this time Williams released more hit songs, such as "My Son Calls Another Man Daddy", "They'll Never Take Her Love from Me", "Why Should We Try Anymore", "Nobody's Lonesome for Me", "Long Gone Lonesome Blues", "Why Don't You Love Me", "Moanin' the Blues", and "I Just Don't Like This Kind of Living". The man in the back seat was singer-songwriter Hank Williams Sr. "I ran in and explained my situation to the two interns who were in the hospital," said Carr, now a 67-year-old Montgomery businessman. He was dead on arrival at an Oak Hill hospital, the front page of The Alabama Journal read. Many artists have covered his songs and he has influenced Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, George Strait, Charley Pride, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones, among others. In mid-June 2020, Katherine Williams-Dunning the daughter of country singer Hank Williams Jr. was killed in a car crash in Tennessee. The suit demanded that both of the publishing companies continue to pay her half of the royalties from Hank Williams' records. 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. [78] His final concert was held in Austin, Texas, at the Skyline Club on December 19. In addition, her relationship with Williams' mom proved complicated. The court rejected claims made by PolyGram Records and Legacy Entertainment in releasing recordings Williams made for the Mother's Best Flour Show. 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. The newlyweds spent Christmas 1952 with Williamss mother in Montgomery. The first celebration, in 1954, featured the unveiling of a monument at the Cramton Bowl that was later placed at the gravesite of Williams. [98][99] Williams' remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. Instead, Williams died 67 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1953. 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. The authors of Hank Williams: The Biography pointed out that "Hank" sounded more "like a hillbilly and western star" than "Hiram". 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. 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. [13][14], As a child, Williams was nicknamed "Harm" by his family and "Herky" or "Skeets" by his friends. His passing did not bring about the end to his stardom, however. 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. One woman was carried out after she collapsed. [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]. Entrance marker of the Oakwood Annex Cemetery in, Grave of Audrey (left) and Hank Williams (right) at Oakwood Annex Cemetery, Oklahoma investigation of Horace Marshall. "[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. Hank Williams was an aspiring country music singer when he first met Audrey Williams. [43] The recordings "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" became successful, and earned Williams the attention of MGM Records. [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). "I think he had a profound sadness in him," says Marc Abraham, writer and director of I Saw The Light. Jett did not learn that she was Williams' daughter until the early 1980s. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. The original members were guitarist Braxton Schuffert, fiddler Freddie Beach, and comedian Smith "Hezzy" Adair. What we do know is that Williams died when he was just 29 years old. 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". "I went inside and an older guy, around 50, came back out with me, looked in the back seat, and said, 'I think you've got a problem'. He was scheduled to perform a few gigs on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to see in. [134] Gimarc contacted Williams' daughter Jett, and Colin Escott, writer of a biography book on Williams. After school and on weekends, Williams sang and played his Silvertone guitar on the sidewalk in front of the WSFA radio studio. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [41], The American entry into World War II in 1941 marked the beginning of hard times for Williams. After recording "Never Again" and "Honky Tonkin'" with Sterling Records, he signed a contract with MGM Records. While her son was not on the stage, his song I Saw The Light opened the show. Having only recently recorded what would become some of his best-loved songs -- including Kawliga and Your Cheatin Heart -- Williams performed his final concert in Austin, Texas on Dec. 19, 1952. 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.". For a time his relationship with Fred Rose deteriorated, but the two were able to mend fences, paving the way for Williams to become a regular on the "Louisiana Hayride," a regular Saturday night performance hosted by a radio station in Shreveport. [86] Fitzgerald was interviewed, and he suggested that Lillie Williams operated a brothel at her boarding house in Montgomery. A doctor was called to examine him. In the years since his death, Williams' impact has only grown, with artists as varied as Perry Como, Dinah Washington, Norah Jones and Bob Dylan all covering his work. By the early 1940s, he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville. [16] Lillie Williams began booking show dates, negotiating prices and driving them to some of their shows. A doctor injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that contained morphine. This addiction eventually led to his divorce from Audrey Williams and his dismissal from the Grand Ole Opry. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Hank Williams, Sr. passed away on January 1, 1953 at 29 years old.Hank Williams Net Worth. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. In full support of Williams' musical aspirations was his mother, Lillie.