January 1, 1953: Hank Williams dies from his excesses. The King of Country Music has thus occasionally been called "the first dead rock star."
Hiram Williams (no middle name) was born on September 17, 1923 in Mount Olive, Alabama. By 1937, he had dropped out of school to sing country songs on an Alabama radio station. At that time, he started calling himself Hank, because he thought, "It sounded more like a hillbilly and Western star than 'Hiram.'" World War II delayed his rise: A back injury gave him a medical deferment, but his entire band got drafted.
On April 21, 1947, 6 days after Jackie Robinson re-integrated baseball, Hank went into Castle Studio in Nashville, and recorded "Move It On Over." It was his 1st hit, and some historians have called it "the first rock and roll record." A much harder, louder version was done 30 years later by George Thorogood.
More hits followed. In 1948: "I Saw the Light" and "Mansion On the Hill." In 1949: "Lovesick Blues" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." In 1950: "I Just Don't Like This Kind of Living" and "Long Gone Lonesome Blues." In 1951: "Cold, Cold Heart," which would be covered by Tony Bennett and make both men big stars outside the South; "Hey, Good Lookin'"; and "(I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle."
And in 1952 alone: "Honky Tonk Blues,""Jambalaya (On the Bayou),""Settin' the Woods On Fire,""You Win Again" and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive."
That last song was still Number 1 on the country charts as the calendar year came to a close. He was certainly acting as if he believed it. That back injury I mentioned? It kept bothering him, and, as we would say today, he self-medicated, becoming addicted to alcohol and painkilling pills. He missed so many scheduled shows at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville that he was fired.
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1952, Hank was scheduled to perform at the Municipal Auditorium in Charleston, West Virginia. He never showed up. This time, though, it wasn't his fault: The Nashville airport was closed due to an ice storm. He hired a college student named Charles Carr to drive him, but by the time they reached Knoxville, Tennessee, it was clear that there was no chance they could make it in time, so Carr called the Auditorium and let them know.
So Hank, already drunk, and having taken a sedative and received an injection of morphine, told Carr to take him to the location of his next concert, a New Year's Day show in Canton, Ohio. When they crossed the State Line into Bristol, Virginia, shortly after midnight, making it January 1, 1953, Carr found an all-night restaurant, and asked Hank if he wanted to eat. He said he didn't. That would be the last anyone would hear from him.
Carr got food for himself, and got back in the car. Hank may already have been dead. Carr started off again, and got to Oak Hill, West Virginia, to get gas. Only then did he realize that Hank was dead, and had been for long enough for rigor mortis to have set in. An autopsy at Oak Hill showed hemorrhages in his heart and neck. He was only 29 years old.
He was buried at the Oakwood Annex Cemetery in Montgomery, the capital of Alabama. Following his death, he had 3 straight Number 1 hits on the country chart: "Kaw-Liga,""Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Take These Chains from My Heart."
Hank's legacy is huge. Before Johnny Cash, he was the country singer. Many is the singer who has asked, "Are you sure Ol' Hank done it this way?" His songs have been covered by innumerable singers. For example, B.J. Thomas' 1st hit was a 1965 cover of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." Singers as disparate as Dion DiMucci and Mick Jagger have cited Hank as an influence on their rock and roll songs.
And in The Doors' song "Five to One," Jim Morrison invoked the song that was topping the charts when Hank died: "Five to one, baby, one in five, no one here gets out alive."
And as long as we're talking legacy: On May 26, 1949, Hank's son was born in Shreveport, Louisiana: Randall Hank Williams, known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. My father, a big country music fan despite having lived his entire life in New Jersey, told me that Hank Williams' greatest contribution to country music was Hank Williams Jr.
On January 6, 1953, 5 days after Hank Sr. died, his daughter was born in Montgomery, with the name Antha Belle Jett. She became a country singer under the name Jett Williams. On December 12, 1972, in Nashville, Hank Jr. became the father of Shelton Hank Williams, who performs "psychobilly" or "cowpunk" music under the name Hank Williams III. And on March 12, 1981, in Cullman, Alabama, Hank Jr. became the father of Holly Williams, also a country hitmaker.
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January 1, 1953 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL season had just wrapped up. But there were college football bowl games played that day:
* In the Sugar Bowl at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Number 2 Georgia Tech beat Number 7 Mississippi. Ever since, Tech have claimed the National Championship, because Number 1 Michigan State, also undefeated and untied, did not play in a bowl game.
It wasn't their fault: As part of their agreement to join the Big Ten Conference, MSU were ineligible to play in a bowl game that season. So the Associated Press (AP) named Michigan State the National Champions in their final poll of major college football writers. So did United Press (UP), who ran a poll of college football coaches. The International News Service (INS), run by the Hearst media chain, chose Georgia Tech. In 1958, UP merged with INS to form United Press International (UPI), and they continued to run the coaches' poll.
* In the Rose Bowl, in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California, Number 5 USC beat Number 11 Wisconsin.
* In the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Number 8 Tennessee was upset by Number 10 Texas, 16-0.
* In the Orange Bowl in Miami, Number 9 Alabama walloped Number 14 Syracuse, 61-6. No, this was not a masterstroke by head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant: He was still coaching at the University of Kentucky at the time. Harold Drew was then coaching the Crimson Tide.
* And in the Gator Bowl, Number 12 Tulsa was upset by Number 15 Florida, 14-13.
So what happened to the teams ranked Numbers 3, 4 and 6? Number 3 was Notre Dame, and they didn't accept bowl bids in those days. Number 4 was Oklahoma, and I can find no reason why they weren't in a bowl game. And Number 6 was UCLA, who lost their last game to USC, costing them the title of the league now known as the Pac-12, and its automatic bid to the Rose Bowl.
There were 4 games played in the NBA that day:
* The New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 108-82 at the Philadelphia Arena.
* The Syracuse Nationals beat the Fort Wayne Pistons, 92-78 at the Onondaga County War Memorial in Syracuse.
* The Boston Celtics beat the Rochester Royals, 83-81 in overtime at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester.
* And the Baltimore Bullets beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 83-81 in overtime at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA.
And there were 2 games played in the NHL. The Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1 at the Boston Garden. And the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks played to a 2-2 tie at the Chicago Stadium.