The Life of Hank Williams (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

[Music] we're crossing into the state of Alabama we're headed for southern Alabama some seventy miles or so south of Montgomery off highway interstate 65 will takes at 114 and then travel west on the small two-lane road we're looking for the location of the birthplace of country music legend Hank Williams Hyrum King Williams was born in a double pen log house on September the 17th 1923 the house no longer exists but it's located a half a mile past the Mount Olive West Baptist Church the Williams house is on the north side of the road upon a small hill on private property a red barn now stands approximately where the house did Hyrum who will later call his self Hank had one older brother Ernest Hubbell Williams he was born in 1921 Ernest only lived a short time and is buried at the Mount Olive West Baptist Church Cemetery Hank also had one older sister Irene she was born an eighth of August 1922 this is an early picture of Hanks mother's family with Hank and his mother on the Left Aves father was a lung so Hubbell Williams long as he was called was a local River Road engineer working for a lumber and logging company and he had served in France during World War one where he received a severe head injury when Hank was seven years old his mother Jesse Lillie Belle skipper Williams had her husband Alonzo placed in the veterans home in Alexandria Louisiana lon will remain there for eight years from 1930 until 1938 with help from Representative jail mr. Hill the family was able to receive Lanza military disability pension when log went to the VA Lily moved with Hank and Irene a few miles away to this house at 127 Rose Street in Georgina Alabama she worked as an Atta nurse for a local hospital the home the Williams is lived in is now a museum Hank was born with spina bifida that affected him all his life and kept him from sports and it drove him towards music the museum has Hanks first guitar that he received at the age of eight now the house sits high up off the ground and they say that Hank drug an old car seat under the house where he would sit and play his guitar and when he got too loud his mother would stump on the floor for him to Clayton down they lived only a few blocks from downtown Georgina it was a major railroad hub where people would come to catch a train now you can see the train depot on the left from this old photograph Hank Lee of two blocks past the depot and one block left the depot was located for the concrete slab is to head in order to make money Hank would go to the depot and sell peanuts and change shoes and he had also bring his guitar because he had made friends with a black man by the name of Rufus Payne that everybody called T Todd he had a habit of mixing alcohol with T now T Todd lived a few miles north in Greenville but he had come down to Georgina and play his guitar for the passengers Hank would bring food that his mother cooked to T Todd and he would teach Hank chords on the guitar in 1934 the Williams family moved to Granville Hank continues selling peanuts shining shoes and playing his guitar and continued his friendship which he taught now this is Hank at age of 12 with his sister Irene when they lived in Greenville on July the 10th 1937 Lilly moved her family to Montgomery where Hank will lose touch with T Todd you'll not know that Rufus Payne was placed in a Charity Hospital in Montgomery and passed away two years later in 1939 in 1951 after Hank becomes famous he tries to contact T tight and he didn't know that he had passed away the monument at his grave here was placed by the Williams family Hanks mother moved the family to aboard the house that she run at 114th South Perry Street and then she moved to another boarding house at 2:36 Catawba Street it was next to the Jefferson Davis hotel where radio station WSFA was broadcasting now miss Lilly had Hank to stand at the door with his guitar she knew that radio executives would have to see him and she was right now this is Hank standing on the street in Montgomery in 1938 the WSFA executives invited 14-year old Hank Williams to sing on the radio they liked him so much that it became a weekly thing from 1937 all the way up until 1947 he would advertise his show dates at schools and small clubs and a few blocks from Debbie SFA was the empower theater it's now the Rosa Parks Museum hank won his first talent contest there at the age of 14 by saying a little song that he called WPA blues he won $15 for first prize after winning first prize WSFA gave Hank his own 15-minute show twice a week and paid him $15 Hank formed his own band and Miss Lilly served as their manager she also drove the band around to the shows because Hank was too young even his sister Irene would sell tickets and sometimes she'd serve as a substitute singer now this is the first group of the drifting Cowboys with Irene third from the left Hank attended Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery now trying to attend school and play show dates through South Alabama was very trained for the young singer so at the age of 16 in the tenth grade he quit school to work with a band full-time Hank continued his radio show and traveled with the drifting Cowboys throughout the next few years unfortunately Hank began drinking but never inside of his mother when World War two started most of the drifting Cowboys were drafted but hank was classified as 4f because of his spinal bifida and back pain was slowly getting worse and so was his drinking while playing close to Troy Alabama in the summer of 1943 19 year-old Hank Williams met Audrey May Shepard they begin datin going against miss Lilly and the drifting Cowboys advice Hank hired Audrey to play bass and even sang a few songs with the band Audrey was estranged from her first husband at that time and coming out of a troubled marriage she also had a two-year-old daughter named Lucretia on December the 15th 1944 ten days after Audrey's divorce became final Hank and Audrey are married by a justice of peace and his auto shop located at 120 East 3rd Knox Road in andalucía Alabama now Audrey became the manager of Hank and the drifting Cowboys replacing miss Lily which caused some friction between the two outer throat - Hank or to go to Nashville to further his career and miss Lilly Tata Hank could do it by staying in Montgomery in 1946 Audrey got Hank in our audition with the Fred rose and acuff-rose publishing company in Nashville from that interview Williams began writing songs from Mollie O'Day which led to a recording contract with a newly created label of MGM one year after meeting Fred Rose in 1947 Hank Williams had his first hit move it on over and in April 1948 he'll have another billboard hit honky tonking with more success also came more erratic behavior from Hank showing up at performances drinking and sometimes not even showing up at all now Hank and Audrey were living in Montgomery and still performing on a radio WSFA proving that he could stay sober and convincing Audrey to drop her divorce proceedings that she had started on August the 7th 1944 Sapir illuzzi Anna hey Ryan it was Hank and Audrey's chance to start over he's saying move it on over that had reached number four on the singles chart Hank and Audrey even performed one song together I want to live and love the hay ride was broadcast each Saturday night over the powerful 50,000 watt station kwk H from the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium less than a year after Hank and Audrey and Lucinda moved to Shreveport they had a son Randall Hank Williams jr. he was born - 26 to May 1949 Hank had recorded lovesick blues and Eddie went to number one so less than one month after Hank June was born the grand ole opry invited HEC Williams to come to the Opry on June 11th 1349 Hank Williams made history at the Opry he's saying lovesick blues and was recalled to the Ryman Auditorium stage for six encores that is still a record and not broken until this day it finally had to be stopped so that other performers could sing on the 8th of November 1949 Hank released what some people including Elvis Presley said was the saddest song ever wrote I'm so lonesome I could cry Hank Williams was now making more money than he'd ever dreamed of but things were still rocky at home here he is in 1949 standing by his new Cadillac and his new Nashville home located at 14 and 16 Franklin Road Hank wanted to adopt Lucretia but Audrey refused thank you that he might claim her in case of a divorce at one point when Audrey was in the hospital sick Hank came in and tried to kiss her when she turned away he went home and told his housekeeper that Audrey had a cold heart thus the song cold cold heart in 1951 while Hank was visiting his sister Irene in Florida he had a minor heart attack it was a sign of things to come on December the 13th 1951 Hank entered the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville he'd been in pain with his back from spina bifida for years but lately the pain had gotten worse the operation was a disappointment and the doctors prescribed morphine for pain Hank will be bedridden for several weeks and while house borne Audrey and Hank began making accusations towards each other until Audrey left and went to a hotel on the 31st of December Audrey kala from the Hotel and told him to get out of the house by the time she returned Hank told her Audrey I won't live a year without you no truer words were ever spoken ten days after January the 10th 1952 Audrey filed for divorce and divorce was finalized on May the 29th that same year in the spring of 52 Hank met Bobby jet at Asheville secretary they had a short relationship and a few months later Bobby showed up at one of his concerts stating that she was pregnant with his time Hank Williams renewed his relationship with Bobby and they would stay at a cabin at Lake Martin just north of Montgomery now this is the cabin that Hank and Bobby would spend weekends so that Hank could get away and try to control his drinking and drug problems next to the cabin there's a restaurant with a statue of a wooden Indian there was a legend about an Indian named colada who waited for his love to return so long that he turned a wood and Hank wrote a song colada on the 9th of August 1852 Hank had missed another opera show because of his drinking it had gotten to the point that the Opry had to let him go however the Louisiana Hayride accepted him back on 17 August 8 days after missing the Opera show Hank showed up at Alexandria of City Alabama in the Russell hotel and was arrested for public drunkenness police said that Hank was having DTS running up and down the hall and saying somebody is whipping these old ladies and I'm gonna stop it now here he is where somebody took a picture just before he was released from jail in the latter part of 1952 Haag Williams was at his lowest point he had lost his wife Audrey and kids it was reported that he not only signed over his Nashville home to her but he also to give her half of his future earnings he had also been terminated from the grand ole opry Bobby jet had been left with miss Lilly in Montgomery waiting for her baby to be born now according to Billie Jean has been said that from their trip from Nashville to Shreveport riding with his future wife Billie Jean Jones on their way to announce to her family their engagement Hank was explaining to her that his first wife Audrey could be described as a cheatin heart and in a few minutes he wrote your cheatin heart and dictated the lyrics to Billie Jean Williams recorded your cheatin heart on his last recording session with Castle Records in Nashville on the September the 23rd 1952 and it was released in January 1953 after his death on 18 October 1952 Hank Williams made 19 year old Billie Jean Jones in Shreveport Louisiana Billie Jean said that Hank received a call one day from Audrey telling him that if he wanted to see his son whom he adored he'd have to come to the airport to see him she said they went Hank returned he was devastated it was apparent he was terribly disturbed with his new wife of two months Hank Williams was trying to make a comeback he had released a new song I'll never get out of this world alive Billie Jean and Hank spent Christmas in Montgomery he had scheduled a comeback turf for New Year's on New Year's Eve he was to perform at the Charleston Municipal Airport in Charleston West Virginia and then going to can't know how to perform the next state at least that was the plan on Sunday December the 28th three days before his scheduled show in Charleston anchored Billie Jean attended a musician's Union meeting at the alight cafe it's now Club 50 50 Hank was asked to sing a few songs now it's believed this is the last photo of Hank Williams's last public appearance the last song he sung was a red Foley song midnight on the 30th of December Hank Williams and Charles Carr an 18 year old school student off for the Christmas holidays from Auburn University and whose father was a friend of the singer Carl was paid $400 money that he was going to use it for college to drive the singer on a four-day roundtrip by the time the new powder blue Cadillac was loaded with guitars and stage suits it was late in the afternoon and weather conditions was getting worse throughout the south Hank had been staying at his mother's boardinghouse located where the pecan company is now located now there was one bale in between the Borden house and the end of the street so measures Lily's boardinghouse was located about middle waves of the Conn billion Hank was already hurting from his back and about a six-pack of Falstaff he was also taking pain pills I ever according to car Hank was in good spirits and telling jokes after driving 100 miles to Birmingham with weather it gettin worse they decide to stop and get an early start to next morning according to Charles Carr they first stopped up to Tutwiler but they wouldn't let him park the car in from the hotel so they drove here to the Redmont they got separate rooms and ordered room service the next morning they loaded the car up and left early at Fort Payne Alabama Hank wanted to stopped get some whiskey a haircut and shave now when people learned that Hank Williams was in town a crowd soon developed according to car they spent 90 minutes in fort Payne and he described it this way with Hank just Hanken he even left a waiter $50 said that he asked the waiter what's the biggest tip you ever got and he said $25 Hank said well I want to be tenth and give you fifty and said oh by the way who was it that left you the $25 the waiter said why you did mr. Williams the last time he was through here by the time they got to Chattanooga it was snowing bad Hank said if we can make it on to Knoxville we'll catch a flight to Charleston at 3:30 that afternoon they boarded a plane but it soon had to return to Knoxville because of bad weather they drove to the Andrew Johnson hotel and checked in around 7:00 p.m. to wait for the storm that go over they knew the performance at Charleston would possibly be canceled so they ordered two steaks sent up to the room Hank didn't eat much Carr said in a little while Hank began having uncontrollable hiccups and strong indigestion looking back Carl said it could have been the beginning of a heart attack he called the hotel and a doctor was sent now Hank had been drinking and taking chlorohydrate pills to sleep on their drive to Knoxville and Hank Williams for years had had problems with alcohol partly from his back pain that he had most of his life in 1950 and 51 is paying had subsided somewhat where he was still drank but he was able to control his career but while on a hunting trip in eastern Tennessee he slipped and fell Reed damage in his back and causing severe pain hank was soon back drinking and taking pain medication after an unsuccessful back operation the hotel sent dr. P H card well he injected his patient with two shots of vitamin b12 containing a quarter gram of King soon Hanks hiccups and indigestion seemed to ease and he laid down fully clothed around 10:30 p.m. that evening driver Charles Carr called a promoter and was told that they had to leave right now in order to make it to Canton Ohio for the next day's show some 500 miles away the porters pushed Hank down to the color in a wheelchair but Charles said that Hank got in the car himself snowing ass was still on the roads traffic was light but traveling was slow on what was then a two-lane road after leaving Knoxville some were around Blaine Tennessee car attempted to go around a slow vehicle when he pulled out he almost hit face on a police cruiser please Spence one Kitt's did a u-turn and pull the blue Cadillac over Carl told him that he was driving Hank Williams Joel Hal for show and was in a hurry when asked about the conditions of the passenger Carl told the policemen that Hank had been drinking and was given a sedative to sleep Carl was asked to follow the patrolman to the next little town Rutledge where he was charged $25 for reckless driving Carl stated that the judge asked him how much money do you have and he told him he had $70 he was asked if he could wake Hank up and ask him for more money and he said no he said he actually had $200 but he didn't tell them that they took the $70 and charged him $25 fine it was around 1 a.m. when the blue Cadillac pulled out of Rutledge on its way to Kenton Carl said somewhere around Bristol or it could have been Bluefield West Virginia car was not sure he remembered a service station on one side of the highway and our diner and cab stand on the other he gassed up the car and said Hank got out to stretch his legs he asked him if he wanted a sandwich of something to eat and he said no all I want to do is sleep Charles went into the restaurant for something to eat and told the waitress I haven't slept in 24 hours of very tired I wish I had someone to help me drive waitress hazel Schultz said now there's a cab driver in the back that just got off duty he might hit you don surface agreed to drive a couple of hours car gave him $50 and said that he'd pay his bus ticket back home they left doughboys diner around 4:30 a.m. after a few hours Carl left as a relief driver in West Virginia with a bus fare he drove on but became concerned when he heard no sound or movement in the back hank was laying with his head on the passenger side Hank had his blue overcoat on with a blanket pulled over him now this is his blue overcoat that he had on the blanket had fell off into the floor and car reached back to throw it back on him we felt a resistance to his arm he stopped at the next place he could for directions to the nearest hospital believed to have been the Skyland drive-in restaurant outside of Oak Hill West Virginia Hank Williams was pronounced dead around 7 a.m. at the Oak Hill West Virginia Hospital on January the 1st 1953 his body was taken across the road from the hospital that what was then the Tyree funeral home the first call that Charles Carr made was to his dad back in Montgomery to inform him that Hank Williams had passed away Mr Carr then called miss Lilly to inform her car and Lily caught a plane out for Roanoke the closest airport that was not snowed in they arrived the next morning in Oak Hill that afternoon Hanks wife Billie Jean and her dad arrived the funeral home had allowed Charles to stay in one of their rooms where he could rest and sleep until the family got there now here is Charles consoling hanks sister Irene miss lily made arrangement for Hanks body to be taken back to her boardinghouse in Montgomery by the Tyree funeral home mr. Carr his son Charles along with Miss Lilly drove the Cadillac back to Alabama Hank Williams remained here at his mother's boarding house until Sunday January the 4th now this is Paul bearer's place in Hanks casket in a hearse leaving the boarding house and taking him to the city Municipal Auditorium where thousands are waiting for him if said that it was the largest funeral ever held in Montgomery at the funeral has been said that Miss Lillian decided who would sit on the front row Bobby Jett who was living at miss Lily's board the House since August was sitting on the third row with cousins and Hanks dead lung Bobby jets baby was born two days later on January the 6 nineteen fifty-three years later it will be discovered that Hank miss lily and Bobby jet had gone to see an attorney for Hank agreed to pay all the doctor bills and Bobby until the baby was born and to pay her ticket to California wherever she wanted to go ms Lilly was to have custody of the baby for the first two years and then custody would revert back to Hank and Bobby but after Hanks death miss Lilly adopted baby Jett Williams in December of 1954 unfortunately miss Lilly passed away two months later on the 26th of February 1955 the baby became a ward of the state and was adopted by a couple who loved kids from mobile jet will not discover who her father was until several years later now Billy gene Williams Hanks wife of two and a half months will return to Louisiana and within a year she will marry country singer Johnny Horton they'll have children but tragedy was strike again when Johnny Horton was killed by a drunk driver in a head-on automobile crash Hanks first cousin yes he made jiggers stated that she liked Billy gene Hanks second black and said she was a very nice lady on the 4th of January 1953 thousands of fans walked behind the hearse carrying the body of Hank Williams from the city auditorium to the Oakwood Cemetery annex Hanks Hurst drove up the small lane over the little hill the grave overlooks the beautiful Alabama landscape now this is the graveside of country music legend Hank Williams on the right and Audra Shepard Williams on the left it's one of the most beautiful memorials I've seen on Hanks grave there's a little plaque with him playing a guitar and sitting on the stood next to Hank is the grave of Audrey wheels without question the love of Hank Williams's life it was rumored that they had plans to reconcile what's his new year's tour was finished now of course we'll never know for sure miss Audrey as the drifting Cowboys Calder passed away on November the 4th 1975 from heart trouble some say from substance abuse but I believe that she died from disappointment and a broken heart Hank once said that he couldn't live without Audrey and it also seems that Audrey couldn't live without hate she was 52 years old the graves are surrounded by green outdoor carpet the flowers are fresh and beautiful the Hat represents the one that he wore as Luke the drifter the name it Hank used to record songs that was different from his usual Hank Williams songs everything seems so clean and it might be because this little request from Hank Williams jr. to his mother and daddys fans there's an engraving of guitar and boots on both graves on Hanks left is his mother Miss Lilly she passed away only two years after her son I believe that is the eastern star sign on her grave meaning that Hanks dead Lund belonged to the Masonic Lodge thus the name Hyrum he gave his son next to miss Lilly's grave is her daughter and Hanks sister Irene who passed in 1995 beside Irina's her husband JT Smith who passed in 1980 on the back of Hanks grave these are the words that Miss Audrey wrote to Hank thank you darling thank you for all the love you gave me there could be one no stronger thank you for the many beautiful songs that will live long and longer thank you for being a wonderful father to Lucretia she loved you more than you know thank you for our precious son and thank God that he looks so much like you and now I say there are no words in the dictionary that can express my love for you someday beyond the blue Audrey Williams and lucretius words to her mother out dream dear mother you were always there when I really needed you you were the one that I counted on when you died my world changed I felt lost Oh everything to you and Daddy there is no way to say I love you both enough your loving daughter Lucretia Hank jr. wrote my dears mother you lacked daddy left too soon you have beautiful grandchildren I will teach them about you we miss you every day especially me your son Hank jr. looking at all of this I can't help but feel the love that Hank Williams jr. has for his mother and daddy I think he's responsible for this beautiful place Hiram Hank Williams was 29 years old [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 147,318

Rating: 4.8903027 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: KMo9Y3xuji4

Length: 34min 53sec (2093 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Lesland]

Hank Williams has always reminded me of riding in my daddy’s pick up.

[u/omar29]

Am Mexican I love hank Williams why don’t white ppl comment ?