Did Hank Williams Really "See the Light"?

“Money is never going to satisfy you. Fame will never satisfy you. Nothing in this world is going to satisfy you except for God.” – Bennett Stirtz

I just finished reading a biography of Hank Williams, one of the forerunners of modern-day country music. He was born in a small town in rural Alabama on September 17, 1923, and as a boy, Hank (whose real name was Hiram) would sing and play his guitar on street corners in Georgiana as passersby tossed coins in his direction. Later, his family moved to Montgomery where he won a local talent show and was signed to host a radio show of his own while still in his mid-teens. Hank soon formed a back-up band called The Driftin’ Cowboys, dropped out of school, and started performing at honky-tonks throughout the southeast.

Around this time, Hank met and married his first wife Audrey, who wasn’t legally divorced from her previous husband. Their tumultuous marriage lasted until 1952 and involved a series of drunken brawls and breakups as well as a multitude of affairs.

Eventually, Hank relocated to Shreveport, Louisiana where his career really started taking off, but so did his drinking, which had started when he was just a teenager. He also suffered from chronic back pain, which was later diagnosed as spina bifida occulta but never treated except with a cumbersome back brace and high-powered drugs such as morphine and chloral hydrate.

In 1947, Hank recorded his first breakout hit, Move It On Over and joined the popular “Louisiana Hayride” radio show. A year later, Lovesick Blues soared to #1 on the charts and Hank became an established star, becoming an official member of the Grand Old Opry and raking in big bucks with a lucrative recording contract.

Hank went on to write and record such timeless hits as Cold, Cold Heart; Your Cheatin’ Heart; Hey, Good Lookin’; Jambalaya; and Take These Chains from My Heart. Twelve of his songs reached #1 and 55 of them charted in the Top 10.

In 1952, Hank married Billie Jean Jones in another marriage deemed unlawful for the same reason (her divorce from her first husband had yet to be finalized). He also fathered at least one out-of-wedlock child, Antha Jett Williams, who went on to have a recording career as did his son Hank Williams, Jr.

Hank, Sr. died on January 1, 1953, somewhere near Oak Hill, West Virginia, in the backseat of his powder blue Cadillac convertible. The official cause of death was listed as heart failure, but certainly his years of alcohol abuse and recent addiction to powerful painkillers played a major part.

Hank Williams, country music’s first megastar who had fame and fortune at his fingertips, was just 29.

(In 2015, a biopic was made of Hank's life, titled "I Saw the Light", named after his 1948 hit song that was also sung at his funeral. I hope and pray that this supremely talented but ever-tortured man really did see the Light before it was too late.)

“What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” Mark 8:36-37 (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President