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LTC Stephen F.
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Edited 6 y ago
Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that September 17 is the anniversary of the birth of legendary country and western singer and songwriter Hiram King "Hank" Williams, Sr. who became a star when radio and LP and 45 RPM records were the primary means of listening to music.
Rest in peace Hiram King "Hank" Williams, Sr.

Background from imdb.com/name/nm0930729/
"Hank Williams Biography
Overview | Mini Bio | Spouse (2) | Trivia (34) | Personal Quotes (2)
Overview
Born September 17, 1923 in Georgiana, Alabama, USA
Died January 1, 1953 in Oak Hill, West Virginia, USA (drug/alcohol-related heart attack)
Birth Name Hiram King Williams
Nicknames The Hillbilly Shakespeare; Harm
Height 6' (1.83 m)
Mini Bio
Hank Williams was born in September 1923 in a small Alabama farming community about 70 miles south of Montgomery. His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. Hank's mother, Lillian Skipper Williams, played the organ in their local church and taught him gospel songs when he was six. When Hank turned 10 he taught himself to play the guitar, mostly by watching other guitarists.

In his teens Hank learned to play and sing country songs that he heard on the family radio, and picked up some blues chords from a black friend who was a street musician named Tee-Tot (Rufe Payne). At the age of 14 Hank put together his own band, playing at hoedowns and other get-together, where he won a local talent contest competition with his composition "WPA Blues." At 17, Hank put together a group called 'Hank Williams' Original Drifting Cowboys' and they successfully auditioned for the manager of WSFS Radio in Montgomery, where they played regularly on the air. Hank met his first wife Audrey Williams during a traveling medicine show and they were married in December 1944 at an Alabama gas station. Audrey was a strong-willed woman who became Hank's booking agent, road manager and promoter. It was she who encouraged the stage-frightened Hank to perform on stage and helped book gigs outside of Alabama.

In 1946 Hank and Audrey traveled to Nashville to secure a music publishing contract with producer Fred Rose, head of the Acuff-Rose publishing firm, who asked Hank to write a song on the spot. The song, "Mansion on the Hill", landed Hank a publishing contract with Acuff-Rose. During the late 1940s Hank--a tall, thin man who alway wore a short-brimmed, white cowboy hat--had his peak years when MGM Records signed him for a recording contract and he became a regular on "Louisiana Hayride", a KWKH radio show in Shreveport, Louisiana. In 1949, after the birth of Hank and Audrey's son Hank Williams Jr., Hank was asked to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where he made his stage debut on June 11, 1949.

From 1949 to 1950, Hank became country music's top artist, with hits like "Lovesick Blues," "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It," "Moanin' the Blues" and "Why Don't You Love Me." His 1951 hits included "Hey, Good Lookin'" "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)." Hits of 1952 were "Honky Tonk Blues," "Jambalaya," and"I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."

However, Hank's unprecedented success came with a price. A heavy drinker since his late teens, Hank proved to be an undependable performer when be began showing up for concerts drunk, and sometimes didn't show up at all. When Audrey divorced him in 1951 due to their constant fights over his drinking, his band began to become disillusioned with him, too, and the Grand Ole Opry suspended him from appearing at live shows. In October 1952 Hank married his second wife, 19-year-old Billie Jean Jones, who was no more successful than Audrey in protecting Hank from himself. Also, the Drifting Cowboys departed that same month due to Hank's violent mood swings and unpredictability. He was still in demand for live performances, though.

On the early morning hours on New Year's Day 1953, while traveling through West Virginia on the way to a show in Canton, Ohio, Hank Williams died in his sleep in the back seat of his Cadillac limousine at the age of 29.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Matt Patay
Spouse (2)
Billie Jean Jones (18 October 1952 - 1 January 1953) ( his death)
Audrey Williams (15 December 1944 - 26 May 1952) ( divorced) ( 1 child)
Trivia (34)
1. Interred at Oakwood Annex, Montgomery, Alabama.
2. Father of Hank Williams Jr.. There is a Hank Williams festival each June in Georgiana, Alabama.
3. A life-size statue of him holding a guitar stands in downtown Montgomery, Alabama, across the street from City Hall, the site of many of his concerts, and the site of his funeral.
4. Ranked #1 on Life Magazine's list of "The 100 Most Important People in Country Music" (1994).
5. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) inducted his song "Hey, Good Lookin'" into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
6. Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him into the Walkway of Stars (1969).
7. Was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (1987).
8. Was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1961).
9. Was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry (1949).
10. More than 35 years after his death his son, Hank Williams Jr., helped produce a father-and-son "duet" using one of the elder Hank's obscure acetate recordings. Hank Jr. dubbed in his father's vocals under a new, neo-classic country music bed, sang a verse of his own, and released the single. The song, "There's a Tear in My Beer," went to #7 on Billboard magazine's country singles chart in 1989.
11. Even after his 1953 death, he continued to score major country hits. That year his hit "Kaw-Liga" spent 13 weeks at #1 atop the Billboard magazine country charts that year; it was the #1 country song of the year 1953.
12. Pictured on one of four 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, featuring Country & Western music. This set of stamps also honored Patsy Cline, Bob Wills, and The Carter Family. Issued 25 September 1993 in sheet and booklet formats.
13. Grandfather of Hank Williams III
14. Father of country singer Jett Williams.
15. Step-father of Lycretia Williams
16. Married Billie Jean Jones in Minden, Louisiana, then twice more the next day to paying audiences at New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. 14,000 people bought tickets. After Hank's death, Billie Jean received a lump sum from Audrey Williams to stop performing as "Mrs. Hank Williams."
17. He was voted the 74th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.
18. Recorded with legendary Nashville guitarist Hank Garland.
19. Was the 3rd inductee in the Native American Music Hall of Fame in 1999 because of his Muskogee Creek and Tsalagi (Cherokee) ancestry. Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Red Bow were numbers 1 and 2 respectively.
20. At his untimely funeral, C&W greats Roy Acuff, Red Foley and Ernest Tubb respectively sang, "I Saw the Light," "Peace in the Valley" and "Beyond the Sunset"
21. Half-brother of Leila Griffin.
22. Son of Alonzo "Lon" Williams and Lillie Williams.
23. Cousin of Walt McNeil.
24. Cousin of Lewis Fitzgerald.
25. Made his final public appearance at the "Skyline Club" in Austin, Texas, on December 19, 1952.
26. According to Jimmy Grabowske, the steel guitar player for the house band at the Skyline Club in Austin, Hank was only able to perform for about half an hour at his last show at the Skyline on December 19, 1952. Jimmy says Hank started off well, but after about 30 minutes it was obvious something was wrong, and Hank started shaking. He was unable to continue, so Jody Meredith, the house bandleader, finished the show. Hank died 13 days later on January 1, 1953.
27. In the video for the 1989 duet with Hank Williams Jr., "Tear In My Beer", Hank is shown singing the song from an old clip of a television appearance. Computer graphics are used to show Hank's mouth appearing to sing the words to "Tear In My Beer". In fact, the song Hank is actually singing is "Hey, Good Lookin'".
28. Godmother of his son Hank Williams Jr. was June Carter Cash
29. Grandfather of Holly Williams.
30. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
31. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6400 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
32. His musical, "Hank Williams: Lost Highway" at the AmericanBlues Theater in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 2014 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Midsize Musical Production.
33. Williams was born with spina bifida, an abnormal spinal condition that caused him much physical discomfort for most of his life.
34. Portrayed by Tom Hiddleston in I Saw the Light (2015).
Personal Quotes (2)
1. I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin' like myself.
2. You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly.

Hank Williams A&E Biography (2000)
https://youtu.be/L21JIk1v3Og?t=20s

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SSgt Boyd Herrst
SSgt Boyd Herrst
6 y
My dad was really into country western music... I was prettty much brought up on it.. on Sunday, him or mom had the ol’ box radio tuned into WSM(A friend of dad’s a fellow police officer had rigged a ham radio antenna with the T.V. antenna and a receiver box and dad could tune it into WSM. The friend checked on Legalities(all dad would have needed was a key miicrophone to broadcast, as long as he didn’t have that he didn’t need a ham license just to have the receiver.. i knew where on the dial to Bring WSM up.. I usd to bring up other station just to hear the chatter. We also were able to Bring up stations out west by “bouncing off the clouds”. I knew it was more than that.. i’d Read about it at school.. I just kept it to myself about picking up the different far off stations. When I picked them up I wrote them down so I could find them easier. Mainly we listened to WSM when dad was home and not working.. as years went on and rules by the FCC lightened up about what could be played over airwaves, Dad was more restrictive of what I listened to on radio and TV.. I watched special features and listened to country when dad was around pretty much..
I was with mom at a garage sale... she was off looking at plates , pretty picture plates .. I found some old country-western phonograph records, looked to be in good shape and if bought 5 I could get them $3.. I think the women was in a hurry to get them sold.. her husband had just passed and maybe there were memories that hurt.. I was learning in school
What things can bring up to people... after death to a loved one.. on the different songs Hank had.. I only really cared for the ones that had a upbeat at first... after i’d Grown more, I listened to the ones that were more sad in feeling.. lHank had started learning the Gospel growing up.. We listened on WSM as I’d said previously and played those ones like that genre on Sundays and some other days... When our one neighbor visited, I made sure to only play the Hank William’s gospel tunes. The country western genre is still what I enjpoy these days, along with some jazz and some classical.. there are a few of the various genres I can listen to.. occasionally..
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
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At least during His short lifetime He had a son, Hank Williams Jr. ,who in His own right is a great musician. He played the role of His own father in a movie about Hank Williams Sr. that move being " A time to Sing." I do love country music and still hear music from Hank Williams Sr plus His son Hank Williams Jr. and other country greats on the radio. Hank Williams Jr also isn't a duplicate of His Dad but a great performer in his own right with his own talent.
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CW5 Jack Cardwell
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Early age to past, too much wild living I guess.
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SSgt Boyd Herrst
SSgt Boyd Herrst
>1 y
It really was.. I seen a couple movies of his life .. but hard to tell how close they really were to telling his story.. dad and I snd mom watched it on vcr and it had me captivated... Some kids made fun of him because he became a drunk and popping pills for the pain.. I read a biography about him and told them kids that sure what he done was wrong and doesn’t excuse his behavior but don’t judge before knowing the story. That’s all... One of the kids I pointed at not directly but others knew his character.. went home crying to mommy (his tough boy image to me was shattered at that point). Saying I belittled him when I said about him belittling s’body before knowing their story of why they do what they do.. Mommy got on a bent stick and saying about what I said about her child.. the audacity .of it all.. So the kids parents and my parents had a mini conference with important people.. I had to go But waited until I got called in.. I was going to defend my position. I didn’t get that far.. Dad read my paper and defended my comment.. saying we can all learn from this around us, even those younger s’times.. We got out of there that day.. the boys I pointed my comment at apologized to an assembly of us kids.. there may have been kids like Hank. And what them kids said the first time resonated on a negative scale.. So they were apologizing to the school .that’s why we need to do a double think before saying s’thing wrong.. The damage is done.. one can apologize and try to patch up. But the sting may still be present !
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