Hank and nineteen-year-old Billie Jean were married in Minden, Louisiana on October 18, 1952. The ceremony was repeated twice before audiences at the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. It cost two dollars to get to see the wedding ceremony and 14,000 people paid to see it.

He checked into a sanitarium to dry out. After being dismissed from the sanitarium, he immediately got drunk! But, he also played a lot of engagements in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi during that time, then went right back to the sanitarium. On December 12, 1952, he got out of the sanitarium again, got drunk again and was arrested! On December 13, 1952, he made his last appearance on Louisiana Hayride. At about this time, “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” was climbing the charts.

Suffering from the flu, Hank returned to recuperate at his mother’s home in Montgomery. He had a very busy schedule planned and he needed to be in shape for it. He was hoping to make a big comeback and it appeared that he was being successful. He had planned to perform at Charleston, West Virginia and then a New Years Day Show in Canton, Ohio.

On December 21, 1952 Hank visited his cousin’s store in Greenville, Alabama and performed there. On Christmas Day, he went to Pensacola, Florida to visit his dad, Lon, who was by this time, living in Pensacola. Lon wasn’t home so Hank left a box of chocolates and a note scribbled on a piece of cellophane. Lon kept the note until his death.

On December 28, Hank performed at a New Year’s party for the Montgomery chapter of the American Federation of Musicians, held at the Elite Café. This would be Hank’s last performance. The following night, he awoke from a fitful sleep and said, “Billie, I think I see God coming down the road!”

NOTE: What you are about to read are the conclusions of the various, often conflicting, accounts of Hank Williams' final hours. When the math is done, many of the popular accounts don't pan out. When weather conditions are considered for each of the locations involved, it becomes obvious that mistakes have been made and mistruths have been reported. This is a summary, reached through the observations of the young driver, Charles Carr and various witnesses along the way.

On Tuesday, December 30, 1952, Hank and a seventeen-year-old driver, family friend Charles Carr loaded their personal belongings into Hank’s Cadillac. At about 11:30 a.m. the car left Lillie’s boarding house on McDonough Street. Hank had hoped to fly to Charleston, but snowstorms convinced him to do otherwise. Before leaving Montgomery, they visited several radio DJs around town. During this time, Hank was talked into making a brief appearance at a highway contractor’s convention, which he did.

Among his final stops in Montgomery was one at the office of Hank’s doctor, where Hank got a shot of morphine to ease his back pain. It appears that he had chloral hydrate with him to help him sleep, though mixed with alcohol, chloral hydrate could be deadly. A stop was made to get a six-pack of Falstaff beer. They were headed north, out of Montgomery on Highway 31 early on the afternoon of December 30, 1952.

Later in the afternoon, Hank and Carr checked into the Redmont Hotel in Birmingham. The reason for this stop is in conflict, most accounts claim that they encountered ice and snow, forcing them to stop in Birmingham. However, the Farmer’s Almanac clearly states that there was no snow or ice in Birmingham on that date. It does, however, indicate rain and fog for the region with temperatures between 43° F and 53° F. To see the weather conditions, click here.

On December 31st, 1952, the closest available weather station to Birmingham, AL (BIRMINGHAM MUNICIPAL AP, AL), reported the following conditions:

High Temp: 53.1F
Low Temp: 43F
Average Temp: 46.9F
Dewpoint: 44.3F
Wind Speed: 13.4 Knots
Precipitation Amount: n/a
Snow Depth: n/a
Observations: Fog, Rain/Drizzle