European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 30, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The Ballad of Hank Williams daughter by Dudley Clendinen new York times w Hen country Singer Hank William died in he Back Seal of his Gree Cadillac convertible in the dark Earl hours of new year s Day 1953, on his Way to perform in Canton Ohio. The Rural South and country people around the nation went into mourning. Montgomery. Ala., donated its City auditorium for the funeral. Some 20.000 people jammed the Hall and the streets outside and Hank Williams was buried there to the Thunder of Southern preaching and the bittersweet strains of peace in the Valley. Roy Acuff choked up As he Sang i saw the l ight. Two Day after the funeral a girl was born at St. Margaret s Hospital in Montgomery and Williams was her lather. And now 32 years later a woman who says she was that baby has come to court demanding the birth and adoption documents that would prove her identity. The woman Catherine Yvonne Slone say she wants to sing. She says she wants to take the Williams name. And she says she intends to use the Alabama records to sue in new York courts Lor her share of the Williams estate the valuable copyrights on Hank Williams songs. The Case reaches Back to the formative years and old legends of the country and Western music Industry. Stone s claim is being opposed by some of its biggest names hark Williams jr., Roy Acuff and Wesley h. Rose. While they do not deny that Stone is Hank Williams daughter they say she has no rightful claim on his songs. Acuff and Wesley Rose s father Fred Rose founded Acuff Rose Nashville s first country music publishing House and Fred Rose helped Hank Williams write his songs and develop his career. At stake in economic terms Are millions of dollars but in the human elements of the Story Are the very themes of country music and of Williams songs Heartbreak rejection loneliness the blues. A biography of Williams life by the writer Chat Flippo took its title from one of Williams most famous songs your cheating heart. In a Flippo wrote that a country music Star had to be from Humble beginnings just like the  he went on the Star had to sing about those beginnings and the other things he shared with people trom those beginnings simple everyday problems of life and frustration and mainly miseries of the heart and the troubles that caused worn out by life work drink and drugs Williams died at the age of 29, and his last affair of the heart Stone s lawyers say. Was with a Nashville woman Bobbie w. Jett. � was she who gave birth to the girl. Stone s paternity according to the lawyers on both sides is not in question. Those opposing Stone s Effort however said the Issue was settled for Good by an Alabama circuit judge s ruling in 1967 that she had been adopted by a couple in Mobile ala., and had no rights to Hank Williams estate. Stone is disputing that but first she is suing to obtain lira Alabama records that Trace her Early history. This girl was documented from the Day she was bom Thomas t. Gallion Iii a lawyer who represents Stone said in an interview in Montgomery. There Are records stacks of them he said. The first document in the Chain is a contract that Williams and Jett entered into when she became pregnant. Circuit judge Joseph d. Phelps in Montgomery has ruled that Stone May see the contract which was sealed under the 1967 ruling Gallion who said he has read the document said Jett agreed in it to let Williams Mother Lilly Stone raise the baby for the first two years and let Williams new York Tumcl photo cot trint Yvonne Stone u tet King a than of Hank William to Tate. Assume the care afterwards. Williams Gallion said. Agreed to pay All expenses and give Jett an allowance and a plane ticket to California. After Williams died mrs. Stone adopted her granddaughter. The Alabama records begin there and continue two years later when shortly after mrs. Stone died the girl was placed in Foster care. Jett who moved to California died in the 1970s. Stone mid the has a picture of Hersell As a child. Sitting on the Steps of mrs. Stone s boarding House with a toy guitar but she remembers nothing of those first two years of life or the year of Foster care. From the Soltice of Keith Adkinson. A Washington lawyer who is her chief attorney. Stone said that n Mobile couple. Louise and Wayne Dupreo had adopted her in february 1956. She had no inkling of her past Slone said until she was 21 and came into a Small inheritance from mrs Stone s estate. Her adoptive parents told me that i was to go and got the Money and that Hank Williams possibly was my  she recalled. At the courthouse in Montgomery where she had lived with mrs Stone and where mrs Stone died Cathy Stone picked up a Check for about $2.000 i Skod them a thousand  she a