Country Connections By James and Ellen Perry

With part two of The Life of Hank Williams, we will go back to November of 1949 and the European tour to entertain United States Air Force servicemen in Germany.
The entertainers and management staff of the Grand Ole Opry, which totaled 29 people, loaded into a C-54 Skymaster of the US Air Force, which had been the official plane of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied Forces during WWII. He later became president of the United States for two terms during the 1950s.
The main Grand Ole Opry entertainers included Hank Williams, Audrey Williams, Red Foley, Roy Acuff, Little Jimmy Dickens, Jimmie Riddle, Rod Brasfield, Cousin Minnie Pearl, Grant Turner (MC) and Thelma Acuff, Roy Acuff’s daughter, who danced.
The band included Billy Robinson on steel (whom I have interviewed), Grady Martin on electric guitar, Jimmy Riddle on piano and harmonica, and Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys.
According to Minnie Pearl, while performing in Heidelberg Municipal Theatre, the dancing girls’ dressing room caught fire. It took two hours to put out the fire and three hours to put out the firemen.
When Hank performed, the Air Force crowd always demanded more encores with Lovesick Blues. He practically destroyed those people in the military.
Little Jimmy Dickens said they screamed and hollered at him. Especially the women.
Minnie Pearl said the women would give out a long-drawn-out sigh. Hank got such an over whelming applause he could only leave the stage after all the encores.
Concerning Hanks’ excessive drinking, Billy Robinson said that not one single drinking bout by Hank was reported during the whole trip to Germany. It was reported that Hank sniffed the glasses when they took main meals to be sure they were filled with water and not wine.
Billy Robinson quoted in the book “Lost Highway” that Hank was stone cold sober the entire tour. Robinson told me in an interview that the only problem that Hank and Audrey had in Germany was with the food. Remember that Hank and Audrey grew up in middle and lower Alabama where grits are served for breakfast and black-eyed peas are served at dinner and supper with fried cornbread and other vegetables.
The applause and encores requested of Hank on every show was identical to the same as on the Hadacol Caravan. The audience didn’t want Hank to stop performing.
The “Hank Williams sound” started when Hank lived in Montgomery, Alabama, as Don Helms played steel and Sammy Pruitt played electric guitar for Hank. Both Don and Sammy were from LA (Lower Alabama.)
Sammy Pruitt played lead guitar for Hank on his August 4, 1947, recording session at Castle Studios in Nashville which was Hank’s second session for MGM.
Another great musician, music arranger and recording studio owner was Owen Bradley who played piano on Hank’s November 6 and 7 recording session at Castle Studio in Nashville.
Owen Bradley had input on the rest of Hank’s recording sessions from then until his last which was September 23, 1952.
On Hank’s January 9, 1950, recording session both Don Helms and Jerry Rivers were on it.
The sound that every Hank Williams fan knows came together on the June 14, 1950, recording session as Sammy Pruitt rejoined Hank, Jerry Rivers, Don Helms and Ernie Newton on bass. Ernie was replaced by Cedric Rainwater on the August 31, 1950, session and remained until the August 10, 1951, session.
You could be in a dark room and as soon as Don Helms kicks off a song you know immediately that is Hank Williams and the Drifting Cowboys.
When Hank hired Jerry Rivers to play fiddle in late 1949, they became close friends. If you have listened to the Hank Williams Mother’s Best Radio Shows aired weekday mornings on WSM 650 AM, Nashville Hank would use his nickname for Jerry Rivers. It was “Burrhead.”
Jerry Rivers stated in his book “From Life to Legend” that the best two years of his life was from 1949 to 1951 with Hank and the other members of the Drifting Cowboys. He stated they were busy travelling in a blue 1947 Packard seven-person sedan and pulling a heavy trailer.
At that time hardly anyone in Nashville used a bus. In 1950 Hank switched to a Cadillac. Jerry stated in his book that Hank, while riding to their next performance, spent most of his time writing new songs to record. When Hank and the boys, as he called them, returned to Nashville, they would record the Mother’s Best radio show. Then they would head to a farm outside Nashville, borrow a squirrel dog named Skippy and go squirrel hunting.
Hank, Jerry and others loved to go fishing both locally and on the bigger lakes. Hank really enjoyed crappie fishing. Jerry said Hank would buy 200-300 minnows and turn them loose over their fishing hole to chum the crappie. Jerry also said Hank would sit over a spot for hours just to catch a few more crappie.
Hank eventually traded his expensive watch for Skippy. Hank and his boys also carried baseball gloves and balls and would enjoy pitching and catching when time allowed on tours. Hank loved baseball and would listen to four or five games simultaneously while driving at night. Hank and Audrey had reconciled in 1948 after her suing for divorce in April of 1948. Jerry stated that after their reconciliation Hank didn’t drink or abuse anything until he hurt his back on a hunting trip and on January 10, 1952, Audrey filed for divorce from Hank again. This was the final for Hank.
Jerry Rivers, who knew Hank like a brother, stated after Hank’s hunting accident where he fell five feet onto rocks in a ditch, his unsuccessful back surgery, and Audrey’s filing again for divorce, that Hank lost his love of hunting, fishing and baseball. His personality changed, he withdrew into himself and started his seven-month plunge that ended his life either at or near the Andrew Johnson Hotel on Gay Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, on the night of Wednesday December 31, 1952.
Hank Williams was pronounced dead in Oak Hill, West Virginia, the next morning, which was January 1, 1953.
I interviewed people who knew Hank Williams and one person that talked to Charles Carr, a seventeen-year-old boy at the time of Hank’s death who was driving Hank from Montgomery, Alabama, to a performance in Canton, Ohio.
They stopped in Knoxville and checked into the Andrew Johnson Hotel on Gay Street and left for Canton, Ohio, at the demand of the show promoter. Charles Carr stated to my source that he never spoke to or was spoken to by Hank Williams after he was loaded into the back seat of Hank’s 1952 Cadillac convertible.
This appears to me that Hank Williams died either before being put into the back seat of the Cadillac or shortly after. Hank Williams’ death started on January 10, 1952 when Audrey filed for divorce again and ended Wednesday, December 31, 1952 at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville.
Hank’s last performance was at the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas. Johnny Horton married Hank’s second wife of three months, Billie Jean, nine months after Hank’s death. Nine years later after performing at the Skyline Club, Johnny Horton with two passengers collided with a truck on a bridge killing him and seriously injuring his two passengers and the truck driver.
Before Audrey filed for their final divorce Hank asked her to move with him to the Bayou Country of South Louisiana. Hank liked the Cajun lifestyle, fishing, hunting and the lively Cajun gatherings. He wanted to quit traveling, touring and the fast-paced lifestyle that Nashville demanded of him.
His property, savings, and future royalties from his songwriting and recordings would have given them a good living for the rest of their lives. But Audrey did not want to give up her supposed Nashville status and was even putting into motion with settlements from Hank’s earnings to start her own rise to stardom in country music.
The problem was Audrey did not have the talent, voice or discipline to reach those heights. At age 52, Audrey was broke and was found dead on November 4, 1975, in her home that was being taken by the IRS for taxes.
Two very close friends of Hank were Carl Smith of Maynardville, Tennessee and Lefty Frizzell of Corsicana, Texas. These were the top three country music entertainers of 1951 and 1952.
Hank’s last recording session on September 23, 1952, had Chet Atkins from Luttrell, Tennessee on electric guitar. Four songs were recorded from 1:30 p.m. ’til 3:40 p.m.:
1. I Could Never Be Ashamed of You by Hank Williams (B-side #1)
2. Your Cheating Heart by Hank Williams (#1)
3. Kaw-Liga by Hank Williams (#1)
4. Take These Chains from My Heart by Fred Rose/Hy Heath (#1)
From Hank’s final session three #1 Hits and one B-side #1. This session took only two hours and ten minutes.
Information sources for this article include Billy Robinson, Mrs. Ruth White, David Farmer, Don Davis and Billy Stewart.