Post by Jai Guru Deva on Aug 15, 2004 2:46:41 GMT -5
I thought everyone might find the Jett Williams story interesting--it's another kind of musical mystery where a person's identity had to be proved. Basically, Hank Williams had an affair with a secretary and they had a child together. For years rumors had swirled, but it would take Cathy Yvonne (stage name "Jett Williams") 35 years to get the courts to finally recognize her as the daughter of Hank Williams.
Jett Williams:
www.jettwilliams.com/
(Just looking at the photo on the front of her website, the familial resemblance is quite obvious.)
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www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/specialreports/hank50/storyHankDAUGHTER31z.htm
Daughter finally shares in legacy
By Rick Harmon
Montgomery Advertiser
Jett Williams is Hank Williams' daughter -- that's easy to say. It was harder to prove.
It shouldn't have been.
Months before she was born Jan. 6, 1953, in St. Margaret's Hospital, Hank Williams had already signed papers providing for her. Bobbie Jett, the Nashville secretary with whom the singer had an affair, had written an Aug. 31, 1953, note identifying Hank Williams as the father. Lillie Williams Stone, Hank's mother, had adopted her on Dec. 23, 1954.
But Stone died months after she was adopted, and the remaining members of the Williams family put her up for adoption.
It would take 35 years before the courts recognized her, and that may never have happened if she hadn't met and married an attorney, Keith Adkinson, who was as determined to prove her identity as she was.
Now, Jett Williams admits she is happy.
Instead of spending her time in court, she spends it playing at events honoring her father in Montgomery, Georgiana and the Kowaliga Reunion Festival held each year at Lake Martin Amphitheater to benefit Children's Harbor.
"It's great to go back, share my father's music, share his memories and be a part of the community," she said, adding that Lake Martin, where her father wrote "Kaw-Liga," Montgomery and Georgiana are all "part of sacred ground in Alabama as far as my dad is concerned."
Earlier this year, she and Adkinson became the first people to sleep in the restored Lake Martin cabin where Hank Williams and her mother had stayed in August 1952, when Williams wrote "Kaw-Liga."
There's also a possibility that in the future you will be able to see Jett Williams on television as well as at festivals.
The autobiography she wrote with Pamela Thomas in 1990, "Ain't Nothin As Sweet As My Baby: The Story of Hank Williams' Lost Daughter," detailed how she learned of her real identity and then spent nine years in a bitter court battle fighting for her birthright.
CBS has optioned the book for a possible TV movie.
For years, Jett Williams' half-brother, Hank Williams Jr., steadfastly refused to recognize her, let alone talk to her, but the pair made a public reconciliation in 1998 at the Country Music Hall of Fame, where an 8-foot bronze statue of Hank Williams Sr. was being dedicated.
"We've met privately and we've talked," she told the Montgomery Advertiser shortly after the reconciliation. "We're still not buddy-buddies, but we do get along. I don't know what the future will hold, but I feel all the negatives are behind us."
Could the fragile peace survive the TV adaptation of her book, which details how the Williams family, after Lillie's death, ignored her father's wish that she be raised as part of the family?
"I don't think the movie will change anything," she said. "I think everyone knows what they did, what they said and how they acted.
"The movie's going to be true to life, and as you know that's not all good. But you have to remember that we wound up getting back together, and it's not how you start the race, but how you close it."
Jett Williams:
www.jettwilliams.com/
(Just looking at the photo on the front of her website, the familial resemblance is quite obvious.)
____________________________________________
www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/specialreports/hank50/storyHankDAUGHTER31z.htm
Daughter finally shares in legacy
By Rick Harmon
Montgomery Advertiser
Jett Williams is Hank Williams' daughter -- that's easy to say. It was harder to prove.
It shouldn't have been.
Months before she was born Jan. 6, 1953, in St. Margaret's Hospital, Hank Williams had already signed papers providing for her. Bobbie Jett, the Nashville secretary with whom the singer had an affair, had written an Aug. 31, 1953, note identifying Hank Williams as the father. Lillie Williams Stone, Hank's mother, had adopted her on Dec. 23, 1954.
But Stone died months after she was adopted, and the remaining members of the Williams family put her up for adoption.
It would take 35 years before the courts recognized her, and that may never have happened if she hadn't met and married an attorney, Keith Adkinson, who was as determined to prove her identity as she was.
Now, Jett Williams admits she is happy.
Instead of spending her time in court, she spends it playing at events honoring her father in Montgomery, Georgiana and the Kowaliga Reunion Festival held each year at Lake Martin Amphitheater to benefit Children's Harbor.
"It's great to go back, share my father's music, share his memories and be a part of the community," she said, adding that Lake Martin, where her father wrote "Kaw-Liga," Montgomery and Georgiana are all "part of sacred ground in Alabama as far as my dad is concerned."
Earlier this year, she and Adkinson became the first people to sleep in the restored Lake Martin cabin where Hank Williams and her mother had stayed in August 1952, when Williams wrote "Kaw-Liga."
There's also a possibility that in the future you will be able to see Jett Williams on television as well as at festivals.
The autobiography she wrote with Pamela Thomas in 1990, "Ain't Nothin As Sweet As My Baby: The Story of Hank Williams' Lost Daughter," detailed how she learned of her real identity and then spent nine years in a bitter court battle fighting for her birthright.
CBS has optioned the book for a possible TV movie.
For years, Jett Williams' half-brother, Hank Williams Jr., steadfastly refused to recognize her, let alone talk to her, but the pair made a public reconciliation in 1998 at the Country Music Hall of Fame, where an 8-foot bronze statue of Hank Williams Sr. was being dedicated.
"We've met privately and we've talked," she told the Montgomery Advertiser shortly after the reconciliation. "We're still not buddy-buddies, but we do get along. I don't know what the future will hold, but I feel all the negatives are behind us."
Could the fragile peace survive the TV adaptation of her book, which details how the Williams family, after Lillie's death, ignored her father's wish that she be raised as part of the family?
"I don't think the movie will change anything," she said. "I think everyone knows what they did, what they said and how they acted.
"The movie's going to be true to life, and as you know that's not all good. But you have to remember that we wound up getting back together, and it's not how you start the race, but how you close it."
