Product Description

Presents the surprising story of the woman who, for her first twenty-one years, lived as Cathy Deupree, and who then discovered that she was the child of country music great Hank Williams. Reprint.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2029755 in Books
• Published on: 1992-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

From Publishers Weekly
In 1974 on her 21st birthday, Williams leaned that her father was probably the country-music star, Hank Williams. Ten years later, the "lost baby" began to investigate her heritage, the source of this amazing story. With freelancer Thomas's help, Williams details the singer's affair with her mother--Bobbie Jett--between his divorce from his first wife and marriage to a second. Days after Hank's sudden death in 1953, Bobbie bore a daughter who was adopted by Hank's mother but, upon her death, disowned by his sister. The child was then adopted by Wayne and Louise Deupree of Mobile, Ala., who play supporting roles in this drama. With Keith Adkinson, her lawyer (and later husband) Williams proved in court that Hank's kin had denied her parentage in order to claim his considerable fortune. Now with a singing career of her own, backed up by members of her father's band, Williams presents a necessarily one-sided version of events, somewhat marred by many complaints against her adoptive family, justified or not. Otherwise, her tale is as engrossing as a detective story.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Hank Williams died in the first hours of 1953. Five days later, his companion Bobbie Jett gave birth to his daughter. When Hank's mother died in 1955, the girl Cathy was relegated to the welfare system. She knew nothing of her natural parents until age 21, when her adoptive mother told her she might be the daughter of a famous singer--information made available despite heroic efforts by estate attorneys to hide the child from the courts. Jett Williams (Cathy's stage name) here retells the painful process of adapting her identity to her unknown extraordinary origin. Her story is told well and is often touching, although it becomes mired on the inevitable road to litigation. Worthwhile. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/90.
- Tim Zindel, Hastings Coll. of the Law, San Francisco
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A Happy But Bittersweet Ending...
The premise of this book is so sad it makes me want to cry. Hank Williams was an unreliable country singer (like George Jones who came along later), who did things he would not have done had he not been on drugs and a hard drinker. Before his death, he signed a written contract that a child had been born to a woman in Montgomery. Actually, he had signed a notarized contract acknowledging his paternity of Bobbie Jett's as yet unborn child on October 15, 1952, three months before her birth. She was to be "wholly and completed supported by him."

He was a lanky, boyish-looking man (not good looking) with eyes much older than his years. Drugs, liquor, and hard-living caught up with him on New Year's Eve, 1952, in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the Andrew Johnson Hotel -- six days before Jett was born. Bobbie Jett moved from Montgomery to California after the birth, and Hank's mother adopted her only to die and leave the child unprotected. She was with a foster home, as a ward of the state, then adopted again at the age of three when she went to live in Mobile, Alabama.

On her 21st birthday, her mother visited her where she was attending the University of Alabama and presented her with two thousand dollars her grandmother had bequeathed to her to receive at that time. So the truth is out. She did have a famous father from whom she had inherited his talent. "My guitar was my best friend growing up," she said; the radio was mine, and I sang along with the pop songs and could mimic them perfectly, and pantomime difficult recordings such as Teresa Brewer who always sang in a hurry. My dad used to sing the Hank Williams' songs, 'Hey, Good Lookin' and "I'm so lonesome I could cry' along with 'Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes' to me as he played his guitar. His father sang church music and played harmonica. I did try 'Your Cheatin' Heart' on the Cas Walker Show once, but I was not country enough to suit his high standards and went back to the love of my life, pop music.

She'd wondered where she had gotten her deep love of music, but now knew and also realized that "Hard to believe I'd been so wanted after all." She discovered that her mother had married and had five other children but, when Jett called to speak with her on the phone, she leared that her mother was dead, too. So, now she is an orphan. Just knowing she was loved after all was the lifting of a tremendous burden.

You must see the photo sections in the book to realize just how far this woman has come. Her biological mother was beautiful, could have been my sister, dark eyes and all. There is a photo of Hank and Aubrey (Hank, Jr.'s mother) with a group called 'The Drifting Cowboys." Jett made a tour in 1989 with this same group (old men now) and it was called "Jett Williams and the Drifting Cowboys." Life comes full circle. There is an article in August, 2005, edition of 'Guideposts,' an inspirational publication called "Birthright" about her present life in Hartsdale, Tennessee. She looks like her dad.

FACT IS STRANGER THAN FICTION...
Jett Williams' story is the sort of tale for soap opera fodder, only better, because it's based on true life. This book has everything...fame, sex, sabotage, covertness, secrets, lies, legal battles...and all within the same family. It's sad to know that the family of such an inspiring talent as Hank Williams, Sr., could stoop to such cruelty and greed...and even more amazing that Jett was able to rise above it all, claim her heritage and be recognized for her own talent. She should be a spokesperson for open adoption records everywhere! Her struggle is an inspiration to adoptees everywhere who hope for a biological reconnection.

Amazing story!!!
I just happened to find the book once before in a discount bookstore. The story interested me, and so I picked up the book. What a story this girl has to tell. I recently saw a play on the life of Hank Williams, and decided I needed to read it again. It's an amazing story about this girl who was adopted, and did not learn her true identity until almost 30 years later.

It's also an amazing story of all the hurdles that she had to go through to PROVE that she was Hank's daughter. She is a fighter, that girl.

[...]

A great book.