Williams’ Son Appeals Award to Half Sister

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Country music star Hank Williams Jr. has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down “feel-good jurisprudence” that gave his half sister a claim to the estate of their famous father.

Williams’ lawyers contended in the filing that the state Supreme Court gave a share of the late country music Hank Williams Sr.’s estate to his illegitimate daughter, Jett Williams, even though the estate had been closed since 1975.

Williams also asked the court to hear an appeal of a New York appeals court that, relying on the Alabama case, gave Jett Williams a share of continuing music royalties stemming from songs written by her father.

Hank Williams Sr. died five days before his daughter was born in 1953 to Bobbie Jett. The Alabama court noted that her paternity was not suggested to her until 1974, when she was a 21-year-old University of Alabama student.

For the next few years, her efforts to get documents from the state were thwarted because the case had been sealed, along with evidence that lawyers had been setting aside part of Hank Williams Sr.’s estate for her.

She launched her music career under the name Jett Williams, although she is identified in court documents as Catherine Yvonne Stone.