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        www.hank.shows.it                                            hank.tux.nu
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                THE HANK WILIAMS APPRECIATION SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL 1978
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                    Hank's last night at the Andrew Johnson Hotel

       Nearly everyone in Knoxville knows about the country singing sensation 
       Hank Williams. Some may also know about how he was found dead in his car 
       in West Virginia on the cold New Years Day of 1953, but what they might 
       not know is that Hank Williams spent his last night at the Andrew Johnson 
       Hotel in Knoxville. He may still be at the hotel. 

       Hank's chauffeur, a college student, was driving him from Montgomery, 
       Alabama to Charleston, West Virginia for a concert; the trip was going to 
       take nearly 20 hours to complete, and Hank was tired and in pain. For many 
       years he had suffered from back spasms, and he drank liquor and took morphine 
       to ease the pain. He and his chauffeur decided to stop in Knoxville to rest 
       for a while. 

       At around 7:00 P.M. Hank Williams checked into the Andrew Johnson Hotel, but by 
       11:00 P.M. his chauffeur had checked him out - not nearly enough time to fully 
       rest. However, it is enough time to drink quite a bit, and to obtain morphine, 
       perhaps, too much morphine. 

       So by 11:00 P.M. he was heading toward Charleston or was he? One rumor has it 
       that while at the Andrew Johnson Hotel, Hank Williams purposely killed himself 
       by taking too much morphine or that in a drunken stupor he accidently killed 
       himself. The chauffeur then placed his boss's body in the car and drove to West 
       Virginia where the body was "found." 

       Whatever the truth of the matter may be, Hank Williams last night was spent 
       in the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Downtown Knoxville. What is also known is that 
       every so often, in the very periphery of hearing, Hank's voice can be heard 
       singing Death is Only a Dream: 

       Sadly we sing, and with tremulous breath, As we stand by the mystical stream, 
       In the valley by the dark river of death, And yet there's no more than a dream. 

       Only a dream! Only a dream! Of glory beyond the dark stream. How peaceful the 
       slumber, How happy the waking, For death is only a dream. 

       Why should we weep when the weary ones rest, In the bosom of Jesus Supreme, And 
       the mansions of glory prepared for the blessed, For death is no more than a dream. 

       Naught in the river the sanction of Paul, Though it frightfully dismal may seem, 
       In the arms of our Savior no ill can befall, They'll find it no more than a dream.

       Public Domain

       Courtesy of: http://knoxville.about.com/

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             Follow this link to visit our page dedicated to Hanks favorite Song, 

                                     "Death is Only a Dream": 

                     http://www.angelfire.com/me2/kulacoco/deathdream.html

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                    Note: Join Robert Ackerman's Hank Fan Mailing list.
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                               Email: Hank1@mtaonline.net
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