By Graydon Rust Alabama 200

January 4, 1953

An estimated 20,000 people attended the funeral of Hank Williams at Montgomery’s Municipal Auditorium, surpassing Jefferson Davis’s inauguration as the largest event ever held in Montgomery. Dr. Henry Lyon of Highland Avenue Baptist Church delivered the main sermon as Williams, dressed in a white stage suit with a small bible in his hands, lay in state in an open silver casket. Music was provided by Williams’s band, the Drifting Cowboys, and a number of performers, including Ernest Tubb, Red Foley, Roy Acuff and the Statesmen Quartet.

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