Hank Williams died on New Year’s Day 1953, Montgomery funeral drew 20,000 mourners
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
Posted Dec 31, 2020
This was the scene in Montgomery s Municipal Auditorium Jan. 4, 1953 as thousands filed past the open casket of singer-composer Hank Williams who died Jan. 1, 1953 at the age of 29. Several people fainted in the crush of people which fire chief R. L. Lampley estimated at nearly 20,000. (AP Photo)ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Hank Williams, the 29-year-old King of Country Music, was to have flown to Charleston, West Virginia for a New Year’s Eve concert but an ice storm near Nashville kept him away.
Instead, the Georgiana native hired a college student, Charles Carr, to drive him to perform a concert planned in Canton, Ohio. Instead, Williams died 67 years ago, on Jan. 1, 1953.