Hank Williams

Hiram King Williams, known to the world as Hank Williams, was an American singer-songwriter whose plain-spoken lyrics and lonesome voice helped define the modern country music tradition. Born on September 17, 1923, in Mount Olive, Alabama, he was raised by his mother Lillie after his father was hospitalized with a brain aneurysm. Spina bifida occulta would torment Hank with chronic back pain throughout his short life.

Williams learned guitar from a Black street musician named Rufus Payne, called Tee Tot, and began performing on Montgomery radio station WSFA at age thirteen. By 1947 he had signed with MGM Records, and the following year his recording of Move It on Over announced a fresh sound. Lovesick Blues in 1949 brought him to the Grand Ole Opry, where six encores on his debut night made him a national name.

Between 1949 and 1953 he produced an extraordinary run of standards, including I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hey, Good Lookin', Cold, Cold Heart, Jambalaya (On the Bayou), and Your Cheatin' Heart. He wrote with disarming directness about heartbreak, faith, drink, and rambling, and his recordings sold millions.

Alcoholism, painkiller dependence, and a collapsing marriage to Audrey Sheppard wore him down. On New Year's Day 1953, he was found dead in the back seat of his Cadillac en route to a Canton, Ohio show. He was twenty-nine. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, the institution's inaugural class.

The name Hiram is a Hebrew name borne by the king of Tyre in the Bible, meaning my brother is exalted. The nickname Hank is a familiar form of Henry. He used the masculine form throughout his life.