Hank Williams Museum

Though neither of us are especially fans of Hank Williams, we know he was a legend in the annals of music history, so we thought a visit to the Hank Williams Museum worthwhile.

Located in Montgomery Alabama, the museum is a labor of love of Cecil Franklin Johnson, someone you might call an uber-fan.

The museum plays a constant soundtrack of Williams’ music, and it is amazing how many of his songs are so well-known even today.

The admission ticket is a keepsake bookmark!

The museum –– which doesn’t allow pictures once inside the museum proper –– is more a collection of anything affiliated with the artist rather than a true museum. It literally contains fan-made trinkets and the since-refurbished couch that his ex-wife used.

It does have some prize possessions, such as Hank’s 1952 baby blue Cadillac (which is gorgeous!), the vehicle in which he died.

A side room plays a huge selection of television clips of Williams’ appearances on many programs in the 1940s and ’50s when he was among the first Country & Western entertainers to reach a broad national audience.

No pictures inside, so this is a picture of a picture of the famous car that hangs in the entry to the museum.

Hank is buried next to his ex-wife/official-widow, Audrey Williams. The cemetery is in Montgomery a few miles from the museum, and had to be covered in artificial grass since so many visitors were supposedly tearing up grass clippings as souvenirs.

The museum does not do much to tell the story of his life. Hiram “Hank” Williams (1923 – 1953) was born and raised in Alabama, and as a teenager he was already playing guitar professionally. He went on to record 55 singles (10 of which reached the top 10 of the Country & Western chart).

It was not all smooth sailing, though. Williams suffered from alcoholism, which caused him repeatedly to lose jobs and band members.

He also had a turbulent romantic life –– in fact his ex-wife reached a financial settlement with his final paramour in order to be named “Hank Williams’s Widow” after he died suddenly and shockingly at the age of 29 from heart failure.