Billie Jean Horton (original) (raw)

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American singer-songwriter (b. 1933)

Billie Jean Horton (née Jones; born June 6, 1933) is an American former country-music singer-songwriter and music promoter. She had high profile marriages, first to country musician and singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1952 until 1953 and subsequently to singer Johnny Horton from 1953 until 1960.

Horton was the daughter of a police chief from Bossier City, Louisiana. She divorced her first husband Harrison Eshleman[1] when she was introduced to Hank Williams by her then-boyfriend, country singer Faron Young.[2] They married in a private ceremony in Minden, Louisiana, on October 18, 1952, then repeated their vows before sold-out audiences at two Williams concerts at the Baton Rouge High School gymnasium and the Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans, Louisiana.[2][3] She was 19 years old at the time of her marriage with Williams.

Williams died from heart failure on New Year's Day, 1953, five days before his daughter Jett Williams with Bobbie Jett was born. Jett Williams mother was Lillie Williams Stone, and she was born out of wedlock.That September, Billie Jean married country singer Johnny Horton and became important in promoting his career. They had two daughters, Yanina and Melody, and Horton adopted her daughter Jeri Lynn. Horton died on November 5, 1960, in a traffic collision with a truck, widowing Billie Jean a second time.[2] She then worked as a recording artist; her record "Ocean of Tears" hit the country top 40 in 1961.[4] She had a relationship with Johnny Cash (while he was still married to his first wife, Vivian Liberto).[5] Later she married insurance executive Kent Berlin, whom she subsequently divorced.[2][6]

In 1971, a judge ruled that despite her divorce from Eshleman not being finalized before her wedding with Williams, she entered the marriage in good faith and thus their union was entitled to a presumption of validity.[7]

Horton engaged in numerous court cases defending her status as Hank William's widow and establishing claims to copyrights and estates. In the early 1970s, she sued MGM to stop distribution of the film Your Cheatin' Heart, a cinematic version of Williams’ story starring George Hamilton, which she believed portrayed her in a negative light. She won.[2][6]

As of 2016, she resides in an assisted-living facility and her three daughters live in Shreveport.[8]

Horton is portrayed by actress Maddie Hasson in the 2015 biopic film about Hank Williams' life titled I Saw the Light, based on Hank Williams: The Biography.[9]

1. ^ George William Koon, Hank Williams, So Lonesome (University Press of Mississippi, 1983), ISBN 978-1578062836, pp. 68ff. Excerpts available at Google Books. Other sources give his name as "Eshlimar", e.g. Roger M. Williams, Sing a Sad Song: The Life of Hank Williams (University of Illinois Press, 1981), ISBN 978-0252008610, pp. 200ff. Excerpts available at Google Books. See Koon, p. 148 n.74, for a brief discussion of why "Eshleman" is likely correct.
2. ^ a b c d e John Prime, Merry widow of country legends", Los Angeles Times, September 20, 1987.
3. ^ Erroll Labor, "Hank Williams and Billie Jean Say I Do", New Orleans Magazine, September 2013.
4. ^ Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits (Random House, 2006), ISBN 978-0823082919, p. 475. Excerpts available at Google Books.
5. ^ Robert Hilburn, Johnny Cash: The Life (Hachette Digital, 2013), ISBN 978-0316248693. Excerpts available at Google Books.
6. ^ a b "She's living off two country music legends", Associated Press in Gadsden Times, October 1, 1975
7. ^ "Mrs. Hank Williams: Late Star's Widow Wins Court Battle", United Press International in The Dispatch (Lexington, N.C.), June 11, 1971.
8. ^ John Andrew Prime. "Billie Jean Horton, a true American classic". Shreveport Times.
9. ^ Jen Yamato (2 October 2014). "Maddie Hasson Joins 'I Saw The Light'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 6 October 2014.