It will probably never be resolved to the satisfaction of everyone just which day it was that Hank Williams breathed his last breath. Formal documentation declares him deceased on January 1, 1953. Yet a porter or two who carried Hank to his automobile on the early evening of December 31st, New Years Eve declared that he was dead when he left the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, TN. Officer Swan Kitts, a Tennessee State Trooper, who stopped Hank’s car on the Rutledge Pike and gave the teenage driver a ticket, declared that the passenger in the back seat of the car looked dead to him. If it were to ever be affirmed that Hank actually did expire that night, before the midnight hour, it would add just another event to a string of events that occurred during the Decembers in the life of Hank Williams.
Beginning with the birth of Hank’s father, Elonzo on Dec. 22,1891, to the birth of his grandson, Shelton, Dec.12, 1972, December events dot the landscape of his life. Hank was joined in wedlock to Audrey Shepard, a beautiful young lady with a young daughter, Lycretia from a previous marriage, on December 15, 1944 by the justice of the peace in Andulusia, AL. His first significant ‘professional’ date (when you make money, son), occurred around Christmas time in December 1937. It was at the Empire Theater in Montgomery, AL that Hank’s rendition of his “WPA Blues” at a talent show rewarded him with a $15.00 prize, a hefty sum for one song especially during the Depression. And yes, it was in December of 1946, the 11th to be precise, that Hank Williams recorded for his first record label, STERLING, based in New York City. Backed by the Willis Brothers, performing then under the handle ‘The Oklahoma Wranglers’, he recorded four of his own compositions. If you ever come across one of Hank’s 78 RPM Sterling records from that December session, you’ll see the artists listed as “HANK WILLIAMS And The Country Boys”. I suppose the Wranglers were reluctant to be tied to an ‘unknown’.
In 1948, a musicians’ strike virtually shut down recording industry. The strike that had kept the studios quiet until December finally came to an end and Fred Rose wasted no time getting Hank back into the studio. As the session was approaching its end, with time remaining for one more song, Hank suggested his big crowd pleaser, “Lovesick Blues”. Mr. Rose recoiled from the idea. ‘Hank Williams resurrect an old Tin Pan Alley tune? Not on your life’! Hank persisted. Fred resisted. Hank finally won out. And so it was, on December 22, 1948, that Hank Williams recorded “Lovesick Blues”, the signature song with which he would forever be associated, as the ‘Lovesick Blues Boy”.
As time rolled by, Hank would record some of his biggest hits during sessions conducted in December. “Cold, Cold Heart” - December 21, 1950. Included in this session were two of Hank’s best Luke, The Drifter releases, “Just Waiting” and “Men With Broken Hearts”. A session on December 11, 1951 produced “Honky Tonk Blues” and “Let’s Turn Back the Years”. As you listen to the latter and hear the hurt in his voice, it’s real pain he’s singing about. His back is so distressed from a childhood precondition and from all the hundreds of thousands of miles on the road, that two days later, December 13th, he went under the scalpel at Vanderbilt University Hospital. spinal fusion surgery. Take a moment to imagine the state of the art of spinal fusion surgery in 1951. By the end of that year Hank was in so much pain, physically and emotionally, that he would survive for just one more.
December 1952 found Hank with renewed hope that he would soon be back on the Grand Ole Opry. He was touring with the Louisiana Hayride troupe and had been booked for major engagements on New Years Eve and New Years Day. Contact with the power brokers in Nashville had been re-established and it looked like a bit of sunshine was beginning to appear between the clouds. On December 13, Hank made his final appearance on the Hayride. The next day he left Louisiana for a one-week tour of dates in Texas and Mississippi. Hank played Biloxi, Ms. on the 15th and Stark’s Skyline Club in Austin, TX on the 19th. The late Jimmy Day, a member of the Steel Guitar Players’ Hall of Fame, rode with Hank on that last tour and remarked how well Hank was singing and anticipating a brighter 1953. As Hank played out his two sets at the Skyline Club to a packed house, it appeared that he was truly going to make it. But the tired, worn out body was just about to break down. His mother took him back home to Montgomery to get over a feverish flu and to build him up for his return to the big time. A New Years Eve show in Charleston, WVA and a New Years Day date in Canton, OH would set the stage for Hank’s return to the Opry. But, as he was known to say on occasion, “No matter how I struggle and strive. nothin’s ever gonna be alright no-how.”
Somewhere between 7:30PM in Knoxville, TN on December 31, 1952 and 6:30AM in Oak Hill, WVA on January 1,1953 the life of Hank Williams came to an end. Somewhere along that long and lonesome highway a life gave way to the birth of a legend. Something in a long, tall, 29 year old country boy from rural Alabama touched the heart of a nation as the announcement of his death rattled over teletype machines that first day of a new year. Fifty years have come and gone since that day, and his music is still as vibrant, as was the life that inspired the lyrics. The Cause of Death listed on the Death Certificate of Hank Williams reads, “Acute rt. ventricular dilation”. A doctor once told me that, loosely translated, he died of ‘a broken heart’.
Folks won’t you please take one moment out of your time to click
on the banner to your right and sign the petition TODAY of all days
and bring this great man’s art back to full Opry membership.
Between him Hank and Jimmy Rodgers I simply cannot think of
any greater hero in country music.
