Jett Williams | |
---|---|
Born | Antha Belle Jett January 6, 1953 Montgomery, Alabama, United States |
Other names |
|
Occupations |
|
Spouses | Keith Adkinson (m. 1986;died 2013)Kelly Zumwalt (m. 2016) |
Parents |
|
Family | Hank Williams Jr. (half-brother) Hank Williams III (half-nephew) Holly Williams (half-niece) Coleman Williams (half-grandnephew) |
Jett Williams (born Antha Belle Jett; January 6, 1953) [1] is an American singer and songwriter.
Born Antha Belle Jett, [2] she is the daughter of country music icon Hank Williams and Bobbie Jett (1922–1974), whose brief relationship with Hank Williams occurred between his two marriages. She is a posthumous child; born on January 6, 1953, in Montgomery, Alabama, five days after her father's death on January 1. [1] In December 1954, [1] she was legally adopted by her paternal grandmother, Lillie Williams Stone, who renamed her Catherine Yvonne Stone. Following her grandmother's death in 1955, Stone was made a ward of the state of Alabama and subsequently adopted by parents who renamed her Cathy Louise Deupree. [3]
Deupree knew she was adopted, but did not learn of her biological parents until the early 1980s. [4] Although Hank Williams had executed a custody agreement three months before her birth that gave him custody of his unborn daughter, she was forced to go to extreme lengths to prove the relationship and be recognized as Williams' daughter. [3]
In September 1984, she met and retained Washington, D.C. investigative attorney Keith Adkinson to help her. [5] Within days, he obtained a copy of the custody contract, and within months had conclusive proof Deupree was defrauded for the financial gain of others. A lawsuit was filed based on this discovery. On September 28, 1986, Deupree and Adkinson married in Washington. [6] He died on June 19, 2013. In 2016, Jett married Kelly Zumwalt.
In 1985, the Alabama State Court ruled she was the daughter of Hank Williams. On October 26, 1987, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled she was entitled to her half-share in the Williams estate, as she had been the victim of fraud and judicial error. [3] Hank Williams Jr. appealed against the decision in federal court, but the ruling stood when the United States Supreme Court refused to hear the case in 1990. [6]
In 1990, she published her autobiography Ain't Nothin' as Sweet as My Baby. [6]
In 2000, the Tennessee legislature passed HJR 621 designating May 18, 2000, as "Jett Williams Appreciation Day" in Macon County. [7] [8]
In January 2006, the Tennessee Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling stating Hank Williams' heirs — son Randall Hank Williams (Hank Williams Jr.) and daughter Jett Williams, Hank Jr.'s half-sister — have the sole rights to sell his old recordings made for a Nashville radio station in the early 1950s. The court rejected claims made by Polygram Records and Legacy Entertainment in releasing recordings Williams made for the Mother's Best Flour Show, a program that originally aired on WSM. The recordings, which Legacy Entertainment acquired in 1997, include live versions of Williams' hits and covers of other songs. Polygram contended Williams' contract with MGM Records, which Universal Music Nashville now owns since 1998, gave them rights to release the radio recordings. In October 2008, a selection of the "Mother's Best" recordings was released by Time-Life as Hank Williams: The Unreleased Recordings.
Jett Williams released a number of albums featuring her own songs, and toured with a version of the Drifting Cowboys to sing her father's songs. [9] Her nephew Hank Williams III is an ardent critic of her, calling her an atrocious performer and saying that she should have written a book instead. [10]
HiramKing "Hank" Williams was an American singer-songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Williams recorded 55 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers chart, five of which were released posthumously, and 12 of which reached No.1.
Randall Hank Williams, known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style has been described as a blend of rock, blues, and country. He is the son of country musician Hank Williams and the father of musicians Holly Williams and Hank Williams III, and the grandfather of Coleman Williams. He is also the half brother of Jett Williams.
Outlaw country is a subgenre of American country music created by a small group of iconoclastic artists active in the 1970s and early 1980s, known collectively as the outlaw movement, who fought for and won their creative freedom outside of the Nashville establishment that dictated the sound of most country music of the era. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Paycheck, and David Allan Coe were among the movement's most commercially successful members.
Shelton Hank Williams, known as Hank Williams III, is an American musician, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical style ranges from country music to punk rock and heavy metal. He was the drummer of hardcore punk band Arson Anthem and bassist of Phil Anselmo's band Superjoint Ritual. He has released eleven studio albums, including five for Curb Records.
Holly Audrey Williams is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is the granddaughter of Hank Williams, the niece of Jett Williams, daughter of Hank Williams Jr., half-sister of Hank Williams III, and aunt of Coleman Williams. Williams has released three studio albums: The Ones We Never Knew in 2004, Here with Me in 2009 and The Highway in 2013. The Highway was released on Williams' own label, Georgiana Records, and reached No. 146 on the Billboard 200
"Your Cheatin' Heart" is a song written and recorded by country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1952. It is regarded as one of country's most important standards. Williams was inspired to write the song while driving with his fiancée from Nashville, Tennessee, to Shreveport, Louisiana. After describing his first wife Audrey Sheppard as a "cheatin' heart", in minutes he dictated the lyrics to Billie Jean Jones. Produced by Fred Rose, Williams recorded the song at his last session at Castle Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 23.
Wyatt Merle Kilgore was an American singer, songwriter, and manager. Born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, he was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. At the time of his death, he was the personal manager of Hank Williams Jr.
Donald Hugh Helms was a steel guitarist best known as the steel guitar player of Hank Williams's Drifting Cowboys group. He was a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame (1984).
Jamey Johnson is an American country music singer and songwriter.
"Cold, Cold Heart" is a country music and pop song written and first recorded by Hank Williams. This blues ballad is both a classic of honky-tonk and an entry in the Great American Songbook.
40 Greatest Hits is a two-record greatest hits compilation by American singer-songwriter Hank Williams. It was released in 1978 by Mercury Records – who under PolyGram became responsible for the MGM tape vault – on the 25th anniversary of Williams' death. Significantly, it was the first anthology in quite some time that did not subject Williams' recordings to either rechanneled stereo, posthumous overdubs, artificial duets with family members, or most or all of the above. Because of both this, and the value-for-money attraction of having a deeper song selection than single-disc compilations issued previously by MGM Records, many reviewers consider this anthology to be the perfect starting point for newcomers to Williams' recorded legacy. The album remains, to this day, the best-selling record of Williams' career.
"Kaw-Liga" is a country music song written by Hank Williams and Fred Rose.
Audrey Mae Sheppard Williams was an American musician known for being the first wife of country music singer and songwriter Hank Williams, the mother of Hank Williams Jr., and the grandmother of Hank Williams III and Holly Williams.
Jerry Rivers was an American fiddle player.
Alsie "Rex" Griffin was an American country musician and songwriter.
Billie Jean Horton is an American former country-music singer-songwriter and music promoter. She had high profile marriages, first to country musician and singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1952 until 1953 and subsequently to singer Johnny Horton from 1953 until 1960.
Joe Rucker is an American country music musician.
"Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Waylon Jennings. It was released in August 1975 as the first single from the album Dreaming My Dreams. The song was Jennings' fourth number one on the country chart as a solo artist, and it remained at number one for one week and spent a total of sixteen weeks on the country charts. The song was one of many major hits for Jennings, and became an anthem of the outlaw country movement, as well as the wider genre.
Terri Sharp was an American songwriter and singer. While writing on Music Row in Nashville, Sharp's songs were recorded by many artists including Don Mclean and Hank Williams Jr. She lived in Texas, composing and performing the majority of her work in Spanish.
I Saw the Light is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed, written, and produced by Marc Abraham, starring Tom Hiddleston as country music legend Hank Williams and Elizabeth Olsen as his first wife, Audrey Williams. It is based on the book Hank Williams: The Biography by Colin Escott, George Merritt, and William (Bill) MacEwen. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.