Audrey Mae Sheppard (Audrey Williams) was born on February 28, 1923, in Pike County, Alabama, approximately 65 miles east of where Hank Williams would be born seven months later.
She was raised on a farm owned and worked by her parents. She wedded Erskine Guy as a senior in high school, but the couple separated soon after their daughter Lycrecia was born in 1941.
She encountered a 19-year-old Hank Williams while he was performing as part of a show in Banks during the first week of August in 1943.
The two were wed on December 15, 1944, ten days before her divorce from Guy was finalized, in a ceremony performed by a Justice of the Peace inside a service station in Andalusia, Alabama
Relationship Between Hank Williams and Audrey Williams
Audrey and Hank were married from December 15, 1944, until July 10, 1952, when their divorce was finalized. She was born in Pike County, Alabama, and she encountered Hank Williams in 1943. At 20, she was separated from her first husband and became a single mother to their daughter, Lycretia.
In a ceremony performed just ten days after her divorce became final (and before the expiration of the 60-day waiting period than required after a divorce), she and Hank were married before a Justice of the Peace at a gas station near Andalusia, Alabama, in December 1944.
With Audrey assuming the motivational role that had once been the exclusive preserve of Hank’s mother Lilly, the recently-wedded couple visited Nashville intent on meeting songwriter and music publisher Fred Rose, one of the heads of Acuff-Rose Publishing.
The relationship was a rocky one from the start and has taken on a somewhat legendary status in the country music ethos. Hank’s laid-back, easy-going nature mixed with Audrey’s ambition was volatile and occasionally exploded several times over the years.
Nevertheless, it was also the catalyst that drove Hank to further his career on a professional level, something he may have never done without Audrey there to push him along.
In early 1948, tensions grew in their relationship as Hank began to abuse alcohol again. Audrey left, having given Hank the choice of alcohol or her. They would eventually reunite, and on May 26, 1949, Audrey gave birth to Randall Williams. Hank nicknamed him “Bocephus,” after the name of country ventriloquist Rod Brasfield’s dummy.
Audrey would appear at the Grand Ole Opry after the birth and officially rename the child Hank Williams, Jr. Meanwhile, Audrey refused to let Hank adopt Lycretia because she was afraid he would take her if they divorced.
On December 31, 1951, after allegations of mutual infidelities and the resumption of Hank’s problems with alcohol and pills, Audrey called him from a hotel. She told him to be out of their Tennessee house by the time she returned. Hank allegedly replied prophetically, “Audrey I won’t live another year without you.” However, in June 1952, Audrey and Hank divorced for the second time.
Audrey Williams Career
Following Hank Williams’ death in 1953, Audrey continued to stay involved with the country music business by forming her record label, publishing, and film production companies. She pursued an unsuccessful solo career with an all-female group known as the “Cold, Cold Hearts” and managed the career of her son, Hank Williams, Jr., throughout the 1960s.
She founded Aud-Lee Attractions with music industry mogul Buddy Lee in 1964. The company was eventually bought out by Lee and became known as Buddy Lee Attractions.
It was the oldest and largest privately owned talent agency in the United States, representing artists such as George Strait, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, and many other stars before it ceased operations in 2018.
In what many consider to be one of Hank Williams’ greatest songs, “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” he sang, “You’ll walk the floor the way I do / Your Cheatin’ Heart will tell on you.”
Hank couldn’t have been more prophetic if those words were directed at Audrey. Audrey’s later years were haunted by various demons, including drinking and substance abuse, a failed suicide attempt, and a litany of financial problems.
Her overbearing control of Hank Williams, Jr.’s career ended with the two becoming estranged after he turned 18.
She drew negative attention from the media after being arrested for a DUI and holding a Hank Williams garage sale where she was selling off many of the country legend’s belongings to pay back money owed to the IRS.
Audrey Williams Property
She was awarded the house and their child and half of his future royalties (on the condition she never remarried). Months after Hank’s death, towards the end of 1953, she paid his second wife Billie Jean Jones $30,000 to relinquish the title and description as “Hank Williams’ Widow”: both had been using the description professionally. Lilly was in rare agreement with her on this issue.
Audrey Williams Death
Like her late ex-husband, Audrey had problems with alcohol and drugs, and Hank Jr. became estranged from her after he turned 18. Audrey never remarried.
She died on November 4, 1975, from heart failure related to her years of alcohol and drug use at the age of 52, outliving Hank, Sr., by 22 years.
