The day after Williams died, The Montgomery Advertiser recalled Williams as a former peanut vendor who learned to play guitar at age 6. A doctor injected. 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. He had 2 stepmothers and a mother. Cardwell injected Williams with two shots of vitamin B12 that also contained a quarter-grain (16.2 mg) of morphine. Hank Williams had something that humanity universally needs -- a song with a heart-felt message.. [5] He met Horace Raphol "Toby" Marshall in Oklahoma City, who claimed to be a doctor. [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. After Hawkshaw Hawkins and other performers started singing "I Saw the Light" as a tribute to Williams, the crowd, now realizing that he was indeed dead, followed them. [85] In 2005, the BBC documentary series Arena featured an episode on Williams. Meanwhile, "Weary Blues From Waitin'" reached No. Williams later credited him as his only teacher. Both women had been using the description professionally. [8] He was of English and Welsh ancestry,[9][10][11][12] and he was also of Muscogee, Choctaw, and Cherokee descent. "I saw that the overcoat and blanket that had been covering Hank had slipped off," Carr told yet another reporter. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [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. [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". Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia on Wednesday, December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1952. The important thing is that he made millions of people happy, an editorial in The Advertiser stated on Jan. 3, 1953. [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. However, his plaintive, bluesy phrasing was unique and became a touchstone of country music. His stardom put money in his pocket and gave him the kind of creative freedom artists long for. Meanwhile, Lewis Fitzgerald's son Ricky billed himself as Hank Williams IV following his father's claim of being Williams' son. [32] The Cadillac in which Williams was riding just before he died is now preserved at the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. [35] On March 12, 1953, Billie Jean Jones appeared before the Oklahoma committee. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. [37], In August 1938, Elonzo Williams was temporarily released from the hospital. His hair began falling out, and he put on 30 extra pounds. Williams dropped out of school in October 1939 so that he and the Drifting Cowboys could work full-time. "Fan It" and "Alexander's Ragtime Band", recorded by Williams at age 15; the homemade recordings of him singing "Freight Train Blues", "New San Antonio Rose", "St. Louis Blues" and "Greenback Dollar" at age 18; and a recording for the 1951 March of Dimes. [69] On November 14, 1951, Williams flew to New York with his steel guitar player Don Helms where he appeared on television for the first time on The Perry Como Show. 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. 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. Omissions? 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. Hank Williams Sr. [30] Payne and Williams lost touch, though Payne also eventually moved to Montgomery, where he died in poverty in 1939. Copy. Advance ticket sales totaled $3,500. Later, he started to consume painkillers, including morphine, and alcohol to ease the pain. The pain and anguish that led him to drink could be heard in his songs. 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. [30] Williams's remains are interred at the Oakwood Annex in Montgomery. 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. The authors of Hank Williams: The Biography pointed out that "Hank" sounded more "like a hillbilly and western star" than "Hiram". From The Montgomery Advertiser. [25] His funeral was said to have been far larger than any ever held for any other citizen of Alabama,[27][21] and the largest event ever held in Montgomery,[28] surpassing Jefferson Davis' inauguration as President of the Confederacy. Probably taught his first chords by Payne, Williams began playing the guitar at age 8. [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. [103][104] Alabama governor Gordon Persons officially proclaimed September 21 "Hank Williams Day". His salary was enough for him to start his own band, which he dubbed the Drifting Cowboys. Prior to that, duplicates were made and intended to be published by a third party. He won the first prize of $15, singing his first original song "WPA Blues". The Georgiana . She stated that she received after Williams' death a bill for $800 from Marshall for the treatment. Secondly,how did hank williams pass away? Williams, Sheppard, and the Drifting Cowboys band in 1951 The American entry into World War II in 1941 marked the beginning of hard times for Williams. His official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but there are many who say otherwise. For Hank to have lived even a normal life span, he would have had to avoid chemical dependence. Discover Hank Williams' Death Car in Montgomery, Alabama: Cadillac where country's first big star was found dead. [84], A man named Lewis Fitzgerald (born 1943) claimed to be Williams' illegitimate son; he was the son of Marie McNeil, Williams' cousin. [35] His recent win at the Empire Theater and the street performances caught the attention of WSFA producers who occasionally invited him to perform on air. In 1948, he moved to Shreveport, Louisiana, and he joined the Louisiana Hayride, a radio show broadcast that propelled him into living rooms all over the Southeast appearing on weekend shows. [16] The couple divorced on May 29, 1952. 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. A doctor was called to examine him. Due to Williams' excesses, Fred Rose stopped working with him. With Hill's help, the family began collecting the money. 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. But coupled with Williams' obvious talents as a singer and songwriter was an increasing dependence on alcohol, which he'd started abusing in order to relieve his sometimes excruciating back pain. Celebrity Births Deaths and Ages Hank Williams Sr. [77] It was the second marriage for both (each being divorced with children). [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. 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. Less than 48 hours later, Hank Williams was dead. Payne,[1] along with Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb,[2] had a major influence on Williams' later musical style. Williams said he did not, and those are believed to be his last words. She was a headstrong, recently divorced mother of a 2-year-old, six months his senior and also a musician. "[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 Georgiana native hired a college student, Charles Carr, to drive him to perform a concert planned in Canton, Ohio. [85], Williams was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia, on December 31, 1952. [42] He continued to show up for his radio show intoxicated, so in August 1942 the WSFA radio station fired him for "habitual drunkenness". YouTubes privacy policy is available here and YouTubes terms of service is available here. Widely considered country music's first superstar, Hiram "Hank" Williams was born September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama. 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.". Carr immediately realized that he was dead and informed the filling station's owner, Glenn Burdette, who called the chief of the local police, O.H. [34] "[34], On March 10, Marshall was called again to testify. After determining that Williams was dead, Carr asked for help from the owner of the station who notified the police. 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. Williams said he did not, and those are thought to be his last words. You wrote only what you felt boil up inside you. It was swelling in him like a great body of water behind a massive dam, Lyons said. Carr told Cooper this happened at the side of the road six miles from Oak Hill, but investigating officer Howard Janney placed it in the Skyline Drive-In restaurant's parking lot, noting that Carr sought help from a Skyline employee. The Garden Spot Programs, 1950, a series of publicity segments for plant nursery Naughton Farms originally aired in 1950. [16] Williams' father was frequently relocated by the lumber company railway for which he worked, and the family lived in many southern Alabama towns. [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. The album, named The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, was released on October 4, 2011. [129][130], Material recorded by Williams, originally intended for radio broadcasts to be played when he was on tour or for its distribution to radio stations nationwide, resurfaced throughout time. Marshall had been previously convicted for forgery, and had been paroled and released from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1951. 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. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hank-Williams. He died in 1939, but his musical legacy would live on in Williams. Jones agreed to Williams's terms. 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". The janitor was accused of theft, but the charges were later dropped when a judge determined that her version of events was true. "Ol' Hank" was just 29 years old when he died, the same age as English Romantic Poet Shelley when he drowned in the Gulf of . [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. Picking up the guitar for the first time at the age of eight, Williams was just 13 when he made his radio debut. 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. 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. 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.. After the failure of his audition, Williams and Audrey Sheppard attempted to interest the recently formed music publishing firm Acuff-Rose Music. Alternate titles: Hiram King Williams, the Hillbilly Shakespeare. He was one of the finest young men that we ever knew, Acuff said.