Court Allows Suit Over Hank Williams’ Estate

WASHINGTON —  The Supreme Court today refused to kill a lawsuit in which a woman who claims to be Hank Williams Sr.’s daughter seeks some of the late country music legend’s copyright royalties.

The justices, without comment, let stand a federal appeals court ruling that Cathy Yvonne Stone, 37, is entitled to have her legal fight put before a jury.

At the same time, the court rejected an appeal by country singer Hank Williams Jr. that sought to reverse an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared Stone a legal heir of the elder Williams.

Named as defendants in Stone’s royalties suit are Hank Jr. and other copyright owners.

Stone was born in Alabama five days after Williams died at age 29 in 1953.

Her mother, Bobbie Jett, and Williams had signed an agreement months earlier in which he acknowledged that he might be the father of the then-unborn child.

The girl first was adopted by Lillian Stone, Williams’ mother. After Lillian Stone died, the child was adopted by George and Mary Deupree. The Deuprees in 1967 refused to be included in court proceedings to determine whether Williams had fathered any children other than Hank Jr.

Stone has begun her own country-singing career, using the stage name Jett Williams.