HANK WILLIAMS Sr.

    Born in Mount Olive West, Alabama (near Georgiana) on September 17th, 1923, Hiriam was the second child of Lon and Lillie Williams. Lon, a WWI veteran, was hospitalized during most of Hank's early life, leaving the boy's upbringing to his strong-willed mother. Small and fragile from the beginning (and afflicted with spina bifida), Hank may well have gravitated toward music as an alternative to sports.

    At sixteen, living in Montgomery, Williams quit school and began his music career in earnest. He had made his first radio appearance on WSFA in late 1936 or early 1937, and would soon become one of the station's most popular performers. He also worked beer joints and regional shows with his band, already named the Drifting Cowboys. Lillie drove the group to venues in her station wagon and collected gate money. By the early 40s, Hank was one of the biggest draws in the region, and had come to the attention of several Nashville artists and music business luminaries. But his reputation as a singer was already matched by the one he'd built for drinking and unreliability. Most considered him an unsafe bet.

    In 1943 Hank met Audrey Mae Sheppard, an Alabama country girl with a two-year old daughter, Lycrecia, from a previous marriage. Audrey learned to play stand-up bass and began acting as manager. They were married in December, 1944. She desperately craved a singing career, pushing for inclusion in the show at every chance. Her ambition, however, far exceeded her talent. Audrey would vie with Lillie for Hank's attention throughout the relationship. In 1946, she accompanied her husband to Nashville to meet publisher Fred Rose.

    Randall Hank ("Bocephus" his father's fond nickname for him) Williams was born May 26, 1949 and shortly before Hank's first number one record spilling out of radios across the country. A frail young man walked onto the stage of Nashville's Ryman Auditorium for his Grand Ole Opry debut. Behind him lay nearly a decade of struggle and rejection in pursuit of this goal; ahead, a little more than five years in the limelight.

    By 1953, literally worn out at twenty-nine, Sometime after midnight on New Year's Day, 1953, sleeping in the back seat of his Cadillac en route to a show Hank Williams was gone. But he had given country music much of its standard repertoire, a new definition of stardom and a legend so enduring that he is still the model for countless singers and songwriters.