Jett Williams

Photos

Jett Williams was born six days after the death of Hank Williams. Three months earlier, Hank had signed a document stating that he was Jett’s father and would be responsible for her care. Jett spent her first two years with Hank’s mother, Lillie Stone, but Lillie’s death in 1955 put Jett into the Alabama foster care system. Adopted and raised by Wayne and Louise Deupree of Mobile, Alabama, Jett didn’t know about her connection to Hank Williams until she became an adult.   

In 1985, the Alabama State Court ruled that Jett was the daughter of Hank Williams. Two years later, the Alabama Supreme Court declared that she was entitled to a share of the Williams estate. 

At three months old, in a photograph Jett first saw at age twenty-eight.	At Lillie Stone's boardinghouse in Montgomery, Alabama.
Held by her grandmother, Lillie Stone.	In her first foster home with the Cooks, an Alabama farming family, 1955.
Her first night with the Deupree family in Mobile, Alabama, 1956.	Studio portrait after being adopted by the Deuprees.
With her first tricycle.	Playing a fiddle, a Christmas gift from the Deuprees, 1956.
Dining at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, with (from left) her aunt Helen, her adoptive mother Louise Deupree, and her cousin Stanley, 1958.	As a flower girl at a formal event at the Little Flower School in Mobile, 1958.
Easter, 1960.	First Communion, 1960.
With Louise Deupree at a fair in Mobile, 1961.	Jett (second from left) with friends, 1962.
Studio portrait, 1963.	With Lenore, in 1964, who remains a good friend today.
With family pet Rascal, 1964.	In costume for a church pageant, 1967.
Her adoptive father, Wayne Deupree, 1980.	In Washington, D.C., with attorney and future husband, Keith Adkinson, 1984.
With producer Owen Bradley, on a boat on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee, 1985.	With her husband, Keith Adkinson, on her wedding day, September 29, 1986.
In her first professional promotional photograph, 1986.	On her horse, Phred, 1986.
A vintage yacht, the Jett Stream, where Jett and Keith resided in Washington, D.C., 1986.	With Keith in an Alabama courtroom, 1987.
After placing a wreath on the grave of Hank Williams, 1989.	Performing in Evergreen, Alabama, 1989.
Performing in Birmingham, Alabama, 1989.	Publicity photo with the Drifting Cowboys Band (from top left), Jerry Rivers, Don Helms, Bobby Andrews, and Frank Evans, 1989.
Performing at the Grand Ole Opry (date unknown).	Her first meeting with Hank Williams Jr. during the unveiling of a Hank Williams statue, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 1998.
With Ferlin Husky and Little Jimmy Dickens, 2001.	With Loretta Lynn.
With (from left) Freddie Hart, Hank Locklin, and Jeanne Pruett at the dedication of historic Kawliga Cabin on Lake Martin in Alex City, Alabama.	Performing with Roy Clark.
With President Bush after presenting him with a bronze statue of Hank Williams, 2005.	Performing with Charlie McCoy in Japan, 2005.
Performing in Japan, 2005.	Wearing Marty Stuart's rhinestone jacket alongside Little Jimmy Dickens, 2006.
With Hank Williams Jr. at the opening of the special exhibition Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy, Presented by SunTrust, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 2008.	With Hilary (seated) and Holly Williams, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
At the Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, where the 908th Airlift Wing celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the U.S. Air Force Reserve by painting "Ramblin' Man" over the door of a cargo plane and changing the unit's radio call signal to "Hank" in celebration of Alabama native Hank Williams, 2008.	With her band, the Drifting Cowboys, in the green room of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's Ford Theater, 2008.
With Mike Jason of Time-Life Records, after signing an agreement to release a series of albums featuring Hank Williams's Mother's Best radio transcriptions, 2008.	With Big Bill Lister, a friend of Hank Williams's who originally recorded "There's a Tear in My Beer."
At the Family Tradition exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 2008.	With Keith and Little Jimmy Dickens at the Grand Ole Opry celebration of Dickens's sixtieth anniversary on the program, 2008.
With WSM-AM radio personality Bill Cody during a radio interview, 2008.	Performing at Big Bill Lister's eighty-sixth birthday party in Texas, 2009.
A cake commemorating Big Bill and Jett's joint birthdays on January 5 and 6, respectively, 2009.	With U.S. Senator Bob Corker, 2009.
With U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn, 2009.	With U.S. Representative Jim McDermott, amid gifts gathered for young adults from foster care attending universities and trade schools, as part of the Orphan Foundation of America's fifteenth annual Congressional Care Package Day.
With Charlie McCoy and Brenda Lee at  the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.	With singer Diane Sherrill at the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree, 2009.
With country music legend Kitty Wells at her ninetieth birthday celebration, 2009.	With Little Jimmy Dickens at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 2009.
With Barbara Mandrell, 2009.	With the Men of Steel band and radio personality Keith Bilbrey at the R.O.P.E. Awards, 2009.
With Big Bill Lister and Ferlin Husky at the Heart of Texas Country Music Association cruise, 2009.	With Jimmy Fortune, of the Statler Brothers, and Bob Whitaker, former general manager of the Grand Ole Opry, 2010.
With George Jones at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Awards Banquet, 2010.	With Jamey Johnson at the Alabama Music Hall of Fame ceremony, 2010.
With Lee Bollinger of Columbia University and Carolyn Tate of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, accepting the Pulitzer Prize awarded to Hank Williams, 2010.	Wearing a jacket owned by Hank Williams at the Ernest Tubb Midnite Jamboree, 2010.