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Hank Williams
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Miami Vice Performer
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Born
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September 17, 1923, Mount Olive, Alabama
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Died
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January 1, 1953, Oak Hill, West Virginia (age 29, heart failure)
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Active
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1937-1953
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Spouse(s)/Children
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Audrey Sheppard (1944-1952, divorced), one son
Billie Jean Jones Eshlimar (1952-53, his death) one daughter from relationship with Bobbie Jett |
Hiram King "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 - January 1, 1953) was an American country and western singer-songwriter whose song "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" appeared in the episode "Bad Timing" of the series Miami Vice.
Career[]
Williams began his career performing on a radio amateur hour for a station in Alabama, WFSA, then joined the station for his own radio show in 1937. In 1938 he started his own band, the Drifting Cowboys, who performed off and on with Williams for 14 years. However, Williams had an addiction to alcohol, which got him fired from the station in 1942.
Williams' country career was a success, with eleven #1 singles, including "Your Cheating Heart", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", "Cold, Cold, Heart", and several other #1s, and top ten singles such as "Move It On Over" (later covered by George Thorogood and the Destroyers). He rejoined the radio shows in 1948 as part of Louisiana Hayride, which exposed him to a whole new audience. However his addictions to alcohol, later painkillers began to take their toll, causing him a divorce, costing him his spot in the Grand Ole Opry (later rehired posthumously in 2010), with the Cowboys, and his radio show.
Personal Life/Death[]
Williams married Audrey Sheppard in 1944 until their divorce in 1952 caused by Williams' addictions. They had one son, Randall Hank Williams (born 1949), who would become a major star in his own right as Hank Williams, Jr. (a.k.a. "Bocephus"). After his divorce, Williams had a relationship with Bobbie Jett that resulted in a daughter, Jett (born 1953), later he married Billie Jean Jones Eshlimar in October 1952.
On January 1, 1953, Williams was en route to Canton, Ohio, for a concert, and requested to be driven rather than fly due to bad weather. Allegedly during this drive Williams was drinking copious amounts of alcohol and then took a shot of painkillers. Williams was dead when his car arrived in Oak Hill, West Virginia on New Year's Day, 1953, at the age of 29. The official cause of death was heart failure, but numerous questions still exist about the exact sequence of events regarding how and when Williams died.