Jett Williams
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Jett Williams (born Antha Belle Jett; January 6, 1953) is an American singer and songwriter.


Early life

Born Antha Belle Jett, she is the daughter of country music icon
Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...
and Bobbie Jett (1922–1974), whose brief relationship with Hank Williams occurred between his two marriages. She is a posthumous child; her birth on January 6, 1953, in
Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
, occurred five days after her father's death on January 1. In December 1954, she was legally
adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
by her paternal grandmother, Lillie Williams Stone, who renamed her Catherine Yvonne Stone. Following her grandmother's death in 1955, Stone was made a ward of the state of
Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
and subsequently
adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
by parents who renamed her Cathy Louise Deupree.


Court fight

Deupree knew she was adopted, but did not learn of her biological parents until the early 1980s. Although Hank Williams had executed a custody agreement three months before her birth that gave him custody of his unborn daughter, she was forced to go to extreme lengths to prove the relationship and be recognized as Williams' daughter. In September 1984, she met and retained
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
investigative attorney Keith Adkinson to help her. Within days, he obtained a copy of the custody contract, and within months had conclusive proof Deupree was defrauded for the financial gain of others. A lawsuit was filed based on this discovery. On September 28, 1986, Deupree and Adkinson married in Washington. He died on June 19, 2013. In 2016, Jett married Kelly Zumwalt. In 1985, the Alabama State Court ruled she was the daughter of Hank Williams. On October 26, 1987, the
Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is house ...
ruled she was entitled to her half-share in the Williams estate, as she had been the victim of fraud and judicial error. Hank Williams Jr. appealed the case in federal court, but the ruling stood when the United States
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
refused to hear the case in 1990.


Book and honors

In 1990, she published her
autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
''Ain't Nothin' as Sweet as My Baby''. In 2000, the Tennessee legislature passed HJR 621 designating May 18, 2000 as "Jett Williams Appreciation Day" in Macon County.


Sole rights

In January 2006, the
Tennessee Court of Appeals The Tennessee Court of Appeals (in case citation, Tenn. Ct. App.) was created in 1925 by the Tennessee General Assembly as an intermediate appellate court to hear appeals in civil cases from the Tennessee state trial courts. Appeals of judgments m ...
upheld a lower court ruling stating Hank Williams' heirs — son Randall Hank Williams and daughter Jett Williams, Hank Jr.'s half-sister — have the sole rights to sell his old recordings made for a
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
radio station in the early 1950s. The court rejected claims made by
Polygram Records PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...
and Legacy Entertainment in releasing recordings Williams made for the ''Mother's Best Flour Show'', a program that originally aired on WSM. The recordings, which Legacy Entertainment acquired in 1997, include live versions of Williams' hits and covers of other songs. Polygram contended Williams' contract with
MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
, which Universal Music Nashville now owns since 1998, gave them rights to release the radio recordings. In October 2008, a selection of the "Mother's Best" recordings was released by Time-Life as ''Hank Williams: The Unreleased Recordings''. Jett Williams released a number of albums featuring her own songs, and toured with a version of the
Drifting Cowboys The Drifting Cowboys were the backing group for American country legend and singer-songwriter Hank Williams. The band went through several lineups during Williams' career. The original lineup was formed in 1937, changing musicians from show to s ...
to sing her father's songs. Her nephew
Hank Williams III Shelton Hank Williams (born December 12, 1972), known as Hank Williams III, is an American musician, singer and multi-instrumentalist, known for his unique fusion of traditional country music, rockabilly, heavy metal and punk rock. He was the ...
is an ardent critic of her, once noting in an obscenity-laced 2010 commentary that she was an atrocious performer and that she should have written a book instead.


Discography

* ''That Reminds Me of Hank'' (Foundation Records, 1993) * ''You Are on My Lonely Mind'' (Self-released, 1999) * ''Honk!'' (Self-released, 2007) * ''Mount Olive'' (Storytown Records, 2017)


References


External links


Official Website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Jett 1953 births Living people Hank Williams Musicians from Montgomery, Alabama American country singer-songwriters American adoptees American women country singers American women songwriters American people of English descent American people of Cherokee descent Country musicians from Alabama Singer-songwriters from Alabama