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Article: King of the Hillbillies: Hank Williams.(Biography)
- Article from:
- Southern Cultures
- Article date:
- December 22, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 University of North Carolina Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Hiram "Hank" Williams was born on a tenant farm in Mt. Olive, Alabama, in 1923. His daddy Lon was a Great War veteran--he owned a store, grew berries, engineered on a timber train. He went into a veterans hospital when Hank was just six, and he never came out. Lillie, Hank's mother, kept Hank by her on the seat of the church organ she played. Lillie pumped the wheezing, breathing bellows and the foursquare fundamentalist hymns poured forth and Hank learned music.
He lived near Montgomery. He worked on the streets shining shoes and selling peanuts and hawking newspapers.
Your mornin' paper, sir.
I'm the newsboy of the town.
And on the ...