(continued from previous Durward and Charles episodes)
This is a story that I hope isn’t true, but I have no reason to believe it isn’t.
Hank Williams, Sr., was born in a very small town called Mount Olive, Alabama. If you read a biography of Hank Williams, Sr., you will likely be informed that Mount Olive is in Butler County. All of his biographies that I’ve read (including the one on Wikipedia) say that. But here’s a factoid for you: Mount Olive is located in Jefferson County, Alabama. Take that poke in the all-knowing-eye, Wikipedia.
(Sooner or later, this geo-biographical mistake will be corrected, and readers of this article will be left scratching their heads in puzzlement.)
In 1934, the Williams family moved to Greenville in Butler County, Alabama. Hank was about 11 years old.
Who else was born in Greenville, Alabama? None other than Durward and Charles. Durward was a year older than Hank and Charles was slightly younger. The lives of the three boys would intersect at a public school in Greenville.
Hank loved his guitar and took it with him wherever he went. One day, Durward and Hank got into an altercation at school. It was probably only a verbal altercation until Charles showed up. Charles was Durward’s younger brother, but he was very protective of his older brother. If you were messing with Durward, you were messing with Charles, whether you knew it or not.
The altercation ended when Charles took Hank’s guitar away from him and hit him with it. Supposedly, as witnessed by someone who was there, Charles broke the guitar over Hank’s back. This would have been bad enough if Hank had been healthy, but Hank was born with spina bifida, a defect of the spine. Hanks’ condition caused chronic pain which, as an adult, he treated with alcohol and drugs. Ultimately, these caused heart failure and an early death at age 29. But as a schoolboy, getting hit with your own guitar had to sting in more ways than one.
As I said, I hope this story isn’t true. But knowing Charles, I can’t help but conclude that this incident sounds exactly like something Charles would have done. Hank went on to marry, to have a child (Hank Williams, Jr.), and to become what some would call country music’s first superstar, though without most of the money and trappings of today’s stars. Durward and Charles went on to fight in World War II, to marry and have children, and to live their own somewhat unconventional lives.
1 comment:
From the stories you've told (me) in past I can't help but think that this story is true either in part or in its entirety. Poor hank; Poor Durward; Poor Charles. But y'never know: success is how some people say to their tormentors: "Oh yeah? Well to hell with you!" It might have been juuuuust that last little needed push to cause Hank to do something with his talent besides just sitting on the front porch strummin' his guitar into old age. You never know, amigo.
Cheers!
CD
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