1/31/2024 0 Comments Last stop barber shop" has no squeaks or rattles, unlike my Cooper S or your Boxster."Īlas, within minutes we heard a squeak from the front end and stopped to investigate. "This car is absolutely solid," Richie noted. The 331 V8 pulls happily at these speeds, sounding like a sewing machine submerged in molasses. The Fleetwood has a large front anti-roll bar (right from the factory) and glides through curves in surprisingly flat and stable fashion. The Cadillac loved these gently winding two-lane roads. We saw several postwar bull-nosed Packards-another touring favorite of Hank and his band, the Drifting Cowboys. Most important, derelict cars and junkyards can be spotted here and there. It's a beautiful route, much of it shady and green. This highway parallels I-59, looking on the map like a tendril wrapped around the Interstate, passing through all the small towns. Putman invited us to lunch on the hotel terrace and then insisted that we stay the night, but it was only noon and we had miles to go on this trip, so we reluctantly declined and headed northeast on old Highway 11. "Hank probably didn't know which room he was in, either," I said.Īctually, I can't remember a room number even when I'm sober, which is quite often. The story is, he tried to check in with another hotel-one of our competitors-and they wouldn't let him in because he was drunk." We only know he stayed on the second floor. "We don't know which room Hank stayed in," Dianah told me. James Taylor recently rented a whole floor for his entourage. Seems the Redmont is the place where big-name entertainers stay even now. Assistant Manager Dianah Putman saw our Cadillac out front, invited us in and gave us the grand tour. Peter Egan & Richard Mayerįifty-four years later, Richie and I pulled up in front of the Redmont and found-a beautiful, first-class hotel with an elegant lobby. Hank’s first stop, the redmont hotel in birmingham, alabama. Off they went, in cold, foggy winter weather with snow blanketing the South, stopping the first night at the Redmont Hotel in downtown Birmingham. Hank's hired driver for the trip was an 18-year-old Auburn University student named Charles Carr, son of the local cab company owner, who was hoping to make a little extra money over the holidays. One was in Charleston, West Virginia, and the other was a New Year's Day show in Canton, Ohio. Nevertheless, he lined up a couple of distant gigs to keep the money rolling in. In photos he looks painfully thin and all used up. His health was terrible, and he'd told several of his friends he didn't expect to live long. He'd recently divorced Audrey and married a young beauty named Billie Jean Jones - some said to spite his ex-wife. 1 on the Country charts-but his notorious drinking habits had made him a liability on the touring circuit. He had huge hit songs on the radio-"I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" was, eerily enough, No. When Hank left town on the morning of December 30, 1952, his career was somewhat shaky. The first part can be found here.Īfter visiting Hank Williams' grave at nearby Oakwood Cemetery, my friend and fellow pilgrim, Richie Mayer, and I left Montgomery, driving north on Highway 31. Part two of Peter Egan's story retracing the singer's last journey appeared in the May 2008 issue of Road & Track. He and his chauffeur were on a long drive across the South, headed from Hank's home in Montgomery, Alabama, to a gig in Canton, Ohio. Editor's note: Sometime early on New Year's morning in 1953, Country music star Hank Williams died in the back seat of his 1952 Cadillac convertible near Oak Hill, West Virginia.
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