Williams' son, Hank Williams Jr., and widow, Billie Jean Williams Berlin, currently split the royalties. [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. [138], After Williams' death, Audrey Williams filed a suit in Nashville against MGM Records and Acuff-Rose. 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. [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. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Charles Carr told the AJC in 2002 he was the only witness when Hank Williams died. [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. Jones agreed to Williams's terms. By the end of 1952, Williams had started to have heart problems. The house had a small garden on which they grew diverse crops that Williams and his sister Irene sold around Georgiana. "[34], On March 10, Marshall was called again to testify. Carr requested a doctor for Williams, who was feeling the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he consumed on the way from Montgomery. In 1951, Williams hosted a 15-minute show for Mother's Best Flour on WSM radio. It was something he apparently saw coming. Williams later credited him as his only teacher. As the titles of some of Williams' songs suggest, heartbreak and turmoil were never that far from his life. As a boy, Williams was the musical protg of Rufus Payne, an African American street performer who went by the name Tee-Tot and busked on the streets of Georgiana and Greenville, Alabama. 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. If this world should last a thousand years, Lyons said, Hank shall remain dear to millions of hearts.. In the 1970s, he created his own musical identity, combining country with Southern rock and blues. [111] In 1987, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame under the category "Early Influence". 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. Country music historian Bill Malone wrote that Williams sang with the quality that has characterized every great hillbilly singer: utter sincerity. Despite Williamss many well-known heartbreak songs, it should also be remembered that he was capable of writing and singing with great joy and humour, as on, for example, Howlin at the Moon., The last years of his life were suffused in increasing sadness and substance abuse. Williams said he did not, and those are believed to be his last words. [8] Williams and Carr departed from Montgomery, Alabama at around 1:00p.m. Williams arrived at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Carr checked in at 7:08 p.m and ordered two steaks in the lobby to be delivered to their rooms from the hotel's restaurant. He also requested a doctor for Williams, as Williams was feeling the combination of the chloral hydrate and alcohol he had drunk on the way from Montgomery to Knoxville. He had a message. [3] In October 1952, he married Billie Jean Jones. Hank Williams was born in September 1923 in a small Alabama farming community about 70 miles south of Montgomery. However, she was to marry someone else before the . The song was number one on the country charts for six weeks. 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. They began to fill the auditorium hours before the afternoon funeral. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. At his mothers request, the concert in Canton went on as planned. [17] From that time on, Lillie assumed responsibility for the family. 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. His hair began falling out, and he put on 30 extra pounds. 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. "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written and recorded in 1952 but released in 1953 after Williams's death. [47] As a result of the new variety of his repertoire, Williams published his first songbook, Original Songs of Hank Williams. Another researcher decided it could have happened at any of the gas stations near Mount Hope. By the early 1940s, he'd caught the attention of music executives in Nashville. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. The newlyweds spent Christmas 1952 with Williamss mother in Montgomery. 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. They are in a bedroom in the home of Lillie (Hank Williams's mother) on North McDonough Street in Montgomery, Alabama. Williams had an agreement giving his first wife half of the royalties, but allegedly there was no clarification that the deal was valid after his death. It could be argued, in fact, that his early death only enhanced his legend. On the weekend after the tour ended, Williams was photographed backstage at the Grand Ole Opry signing a motion picture deal with MGM. 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. [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. The pain and anguish that led him to drink could be heard in his songs. "[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. She was a headstrong, recently divorced mother of a 2-year-old, six months his senior and also a musician. [66] In 1951, "Dear John" became a hit, but it was the flip side, "Cold, Cold Heart", that became one of his most recognized songs. Lillie Williams became the Drifting Cowboys' manager. [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. Long plagued by alcoholism, Williams fell ill at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville on the last night of 1952. When new wife Billie. In late 1951, he suffered a minor heart attack while visiting his sister in Florida. 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. [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. Under the name of Dr. C. W. Lemon he prescribed Williams with amphetamines, Seconal, chloral hydrate, and morphine.[6]. [21] Their first house burned down, and the family lost their possessions. Malinin found hemorrhages in the heart and neck and pronounced the cause of death as "insufficiency of [the] right ventricle of [the] heart." The fall reactivated his old back pains. Marshall gave Cunningham a list of his patients, including Hank Williams. Marshall had been previously convicted for forgery, and had been paroled and released from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1951. 1 on the country charts for six weeks. [77] It was the second marriage for both (each being divorced with children). Jeff Wallenfeldt, manager of Geography and History, has worked as an editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica since 1992. A. Around this time, he met Billie Jean Jones, a girlfriend of country singer Faron Young, at the Grand Ole Opry. 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. He was only 29. [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. [93] Dr. Ivan Malinin performed the autopsy at the Tyree Funeral House. 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. [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. When several of his band members were drafted during World War II, he had trouble with their replacements, and WSFA terminated his contract because of his alcoholism. The Georgiana . [37] On March 21, Robert Travis of the State Crime Bureau determined that Marshall's handwriting corresponded to that of Dr. Cecil W. Lemmon on six prescriptions written for Williams. On the evening of Dec. 30, 1952, the restless, rail-thin 29-year-old tossed and turned in bed at his home in Montgomery, Ala. [92] In Williams' Cadillac, the police found some empty beer cans and unfinished handwritten lyrics. [59] He met Horace "Toby" Marshall in Oklahoma City, who said that he was a doctor. At around midnight on New Year's Day, Thursday, January 1, 1953, they crossed the Tennessee state line and arrived in Bristol, Virginia. [81] A relationship with a woman named Bobbie Jett during this period resulted in a daughter, Jett Williams, who was born five days after Williams died. 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.