ACKNOWLEGMENTS: I'd like to thank my buddy, fellow guitarist and songwriter, Joe Hester of Georgiana, Alabama for directing me to the important landmarks around Georgiana that were known to Hank Williams when he lived there as a child. Thanks, Joe.

Pat Compton of Georgiana was very helpful in explaining much of the Hank Williams story as it relates to Georgiana. From a vantage point outside her office in Georgiana, she pointed out the important buildings and landmarks as Hank must have seen them as a child. Thanks Pat.

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On an icy stretch of rural West Virginia highway, in the cold darkness preceding dawn, the young driver stopped the car to pull the blanket back over his passenger, sleeping in the back seat. That’s when he noticed that the man’s hands were rigid. When moved, they sprang back into their original position. The next town ahead was Oak Hill, West Virginia, six miles away. He drove as quickly as road conditions permitted until he reached Oak Hill Hospital.

The powder blue 1952 Cadillac convertible, driven by seventeen-year-old Charles Carr, reached the hospital sometime before 7 a.m. on New Years Day, 1953. Medical personnel were quick in their assessment of the man’s condition; he was dead! He was country music singer and songwriter, Hank Williams, dead at the age of twenty-nine.

Hiriam Williams (named misspelled on his birth certificate, real name was Hiram) was born on September 17, 1923 in Mount Olive, Alabama, now a part of Georgiana. He was a skinny child, afflicted with an undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a spinal ailment that made his life a painful one.

His parents were Elonzo Huble “Lon” Williams and Jessie Lillybelle "Lillie" Skipper. Lon was employed by a lumber company railway line and was frequently transferred to many towns in the Alabama area. Hank was their third and last child. One older brother had passed away when Hank was very young.

In 1930, Lon Williams was hospitalized, following an episode of facial paralysis. He was diagnosed as having a brain aneurysm and was hospitalized in a VA clinic in Alexandria, Louisiana. Hank was seven years of age. Lon was hospitalized for eight years, thereby being absent during most of Hank’s childhood.

In 1931, Lillie took over the management of a boarding house at 127 Rose Street in Georgiana, while working several other jobs to support the family. Hank and his only sister, Irene, did whatever they could do to bring in money for the family. They sold peanuts, delivered newspapers and shined shoes, among other things. Finally, a military pension was allowed for the family due to Lon’s condition.

In 1933, Hank was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Walter and Alice McNeil, while his cousin, Opal McNeil was sent to live with Lillie in Georgiana. It was Alice McNeil that taught Hank his first lessons on the guitar. It was his Uncle Walter that taught him to drink whiskey!

Lillie moved the family again in the fall of 1934. They relocated to Greenville, Alabama and Lillie opened a boarding house next door to the Butler County Courthouse. In 1937, following a dispute with the school board, Lillie moved the family to Montgomery. It was in Montgomery that Hiram’s musical career would develop.

The Williams and McNeils operated a boarding house on South Perry Street in downtown Montgomery, located near the studio of radio station WSFA. Hiriam had by this time started calling himself Hank. He played the guitar and sang on the sidewalks of Montgomery and collected change for doing so. He caught the attention of the WSFA producers when he was playing on the sidewalk outside the station and from time to time, they would invite him in to play on the air. Listeners began to call in wanting to hear more of the “Singing Kid.” In a short while, the managers offered him his own fifteen-minute radio show, twice a week, for the sum of fifteen dollars per week.

In August of 1938, Hank’s dad, Lon was given a temporary release from the VA Hospital in Louisiana to attend Hank’s birthday celebration. It became quite apparent that Lillie had no intention of allowing him to reclaim his position as head of household. Following Hank’s birthday, he returned to the hospital.

It was during 1938 that Hank formed his band, the Drifting Cowboys. The band traveled throughout central and south Alabama performing at different engagements on the weekends, but Hank was always back in Montgomery for his radio show. The calls started coming in from businesses around the area wanting the Drifting Cowboys to appear. In 1939, at the age of 16, Hank dropped out of school to pursue his music career full time. With no school schedule to be concerned with, the band started playing engagements in northwest Florida and west Georgia. As their popularity increased, so did the pay.

The early forties proved to be a bad time for Hank. Some of the band members were drafted and the few that remained would no longer perform with him due to his drinking problem. It was country music star and one of Hank’s idols, Roy Acuff who told Hank, “You’ve got a million-dollar voice, son, but a ten-cent brain.” In 1942, WSFA fired Hank for “habitual drunkenness.”