On January 10, 1953: Hank Williams is pronounced dead at Oak Hill General Hospital in Oak Hill, West Virginia, after passing away in the back seat of a Cadillac, en route to a show in Canton, Ohio.

The result of the original autopsy indicated that Williams died of a heart attack. Author Colin Escott concluded in his book Hank Williams: The Biography that the cause of death was heart failure caused by the combination of alcohol, morphine and chloral hydrate.