Charles Carr, Driver for Hank Williams’ Last Ride Dies at 77
One of the last man to see country music legend Hank Williams alive, is now dead.
Charles Carr, the young driver hired to take Hank Williams from Montgomery, AL to a show in Canton, OH, died after a brief illness at his home in Montgomery. He was 77-years-old.
On January 1st 1953, Hank Williams was scheduled to perform a New Year’s show in Canton, OH. Because of bad weather, he couldn’t fly as planned, and hired Charles Carr, a freshman college student at the time, to drive him in his powder blue Cadillac. Hank suffered from chronic back problems, and had injected himself with morphine during the trip from Knoxville, TN and also was drinking alcohol. Hank Williams died of heart failure sometime that night with varying accounts of exactly where and when, though a gas station in Oak Hill, WV is given credit as Hank’s final destination. Hank was 29.
The story of Hank’s final fateful trip was recently made into a movie called The Last Ride, A Story of Hank Williams, with the part of Charles Carr scripted as Silas Combs, and played by actor Jesse James. The film was not meant to be an accurate historical portrayal of the trip, and instead focused on the perceived relationship that may have developed between the two men.
Hank’s daughter Jett Williams has since clarified some of the famed last ride story, saying that Charles Carr was not the only one in the Hank’s Cadillac when he died. In an interview with Saving Country Music corespondent Joshua Morningstar, Jett said Hank’s personal physician Toby Marshall and a second relief driver named Donald Surface were also present when Hank passed away in Oak Hill, West Virginia.
“Toby Marshall actually ended up in Oak Hill, West Virginia on that fateful trip. I mean he was there. That’s a little tidbit that’s always been left out. And there were actually two drivers and not one driver. He’s been identified as Donald Surface and he was hired in Bluefield (Virginia). So there were two drivers in the car, and both of those drivers were in Oak Hill when my dad was pronounced dead.”
Charles Carr was a friend of the Williams family. Beth Petty, the director of the Hank Williams Museum in Montgomery, says that Carr “was always kind to fans of Hank,” and he never tried to profit from the fact that he was driving when Hank Williams passed away. Carr worked in investment and real estate in Montgomery.
UPDATE (7-6-13): The funeral service for Charles Carr will be held today, Saturday June 6th at Leak Memory Chapel in Montgomery, with the burial following in Greenwood Cemetery. Visitation will be from 1 to 3 p.m. at Leak Memory Chapel.
July 2, 2013 @ 12:04 pm
Blue field is in West Virginia Not Virginia. They would never drive from Alabama to Ohio via Virginia.
July 2, 2013 @ 12:26 pm
A couple of things may need to be clarified here, and I don’t want to put words in Jett’s mouth. First, she may be talking about “Bluefield” or “Blue Field,” two different towns. If she’s talking about “Bluefield,” it is a town that strattles the Virginia / West Virgina line, ostensibly being in both states. It would also be right on the route they would be taking on the Last Ride. Hopefully we can get some clarification on this.
April 20, 2014 @ 10:17 am
Donald Surface was hired in the middle of the trip in “Bluefield” and drove for a bit but was let out of the car before Hank was discovered dead by Mr. Carr. Toby Marshall arrived in Oak Hill, West Virginia later on in the evening of Jan.1st, 1953. He was NOT on the trip and had no part in the trip whatsoever. Also, Charles Carr stopped at a gas station near Mt. Hope right after he found Hank unresponsive. He did NOT stop anywhere in Oak Hill except for the emergency room parking lot of the hospital there. Only he and Hank were in the car at that time and it had only been the two of them for at least two hours before Hank was pronounced dead at 7:00 a.m. The movie :The Last Ride”, while entertaining was 95 percent fiction. I have researched this last trip for many years and have a handwritten letter from Charles Carr to me that I received in 2009 hanging in my law office that gives the detailed route of the trip. Jett Williams has NEVER been able to get the facts straight or in the proper context when it comes to the actual facts of the last ride.
July 2, 2013 @ 12:05 pm
Some stories say Hank was dead when he was put in the car in Knoxville. I heard an interview once where Mr. Carr said the blanket over Hank had slid down and he reach back to pull it back up and Hank’s are was already stiff.
September 8, 2023 @ 8:14 pm
Goldencountry That does not make sense for the drive to go on to WV if he was dead in Knoxville.
July 2, 2013 @ 1:28 pm
May he rest in peace.
July 2, 2013 @ 1:47 pm
Chad, look more carefully at a map. Canton is in eastern Ohio, and one way to get there from AL is up through Knoxville and along the TN/VA line to Charlotte, then north. Oak Hill and Bluefield are along that route. There was only the beginning of an interstate system at the time, but I know parts of I-81 were built pretty early,so maybe that was a better route at the time. In any case, we know they went through Knoxville for whatever reason, and from there the eastern route and Bluefield, Va. makes sense.
July 2, 2013 @ 1:51 pm
Sorry, I meant Charleston, not Charlotte. Charlotte makes no sense. Confusing my “C” cities.
July 2, 2013 @ 8:11 pm
My good friend, Kevin Glackmeyer, is who took the photo of Charles sitting behind the wheel of the Cadillac.
July 2, 2013 @ 8:17 pm
Thanks, just added the credit above.
July 3, 2013 @ 10:20 am
That final ride started about 2 blocks from my office at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville.
I think about it everytime I see the building.
My favorite building in the state is, of course, the Ryman Auditorium, but the Andrew Johnson, whcih, regrettably is now an office building, is high on the list.
July 5, 2013 @ 1:59 am
I think the true details of Hank’s last ride will be lost to the mists of time. But every year we get closer to losing all direct lines to his legacy. We need to keep ol’ Hank.at the forefront of what country music can be as an art form and its time for the Opry to man up and place is name on their roster of stars.
July 9, 2013 @ 2:09 pm
Hank’s last ride was from Knoxville to Blaine to Bristol to Bluefield to Princeton to Mount Hope to Oak Hill and the routes used were 11 West and 19 North.
July 30, 2014 @ 8:21 pm
I saw the car in Hank Williams’ museum in Montgomery Alabama. I was haunted by the memories of Hank. I can only imagine how tough it was for him to be alone in the back seat. Hank change the world with his music. Even 60+ years later, Hank’s songs are recognized by all ages……
RIP Luke.
Tristan
December 18, 2014 @ 6:21 pm
Old friends saw last show.
No new info from them, as they are dead too.
Married over 60 years and still a main story in their lives till end.
Family and friends, not Hospice.
I cooked a 30.00 plus bird for her.
Also 22.5/25.00.
I was the bad guy in the middle of bad situation.
Ma got the last laugh.
Power went out at cemetary for her feed.
I got a deer that year.
Lotta fuel, fun, and time with good people.
That’s only a couple hours of a great weekend with friends.
Peace, and happy holidays.
Need to go chill in the woods for a few day’s
May 30, 2015 @ 10:21 pm
My father was born and lived in Oak Hill, WV He told me of the story when he was a 15 year old boy delivering newspapers early in the morning on Main St when Hank Williams car pulled up and the driver asked him how to get to the emergency entrance of the hospital. He said Hank was in the back seat and he looked like he was sleeping. There was just the driver and Hank in the car at the time. I asked my father what time in the morning and he said it was about 7 am.
January 31, 2016 @ 5:34 am
THE VERY TRUE STORY IS HANKS WILLIAMS TRAVELED ON HIGH WAY 11 E A TWO LANE ROAD FROM KNOXVILLE TN ON INTO BRISTOL 11 E ON INTO BRISTOL VA ON TO PIEDMONT AVE THEY PULLED INTO A TEXACO SERVICE ST TO FILL UP WITH GAS. CHARLES CARR GOT OUT ASK THE SERVICE STATION ATTENDENT IF HE KNEW SOME ONE TO HELP HIM DRIVE TO WEST VIRGINIA .THE MAN THAT GAS UP HANKS BIG BLUE CAR THAT NIGHTHIS NAME WAS VERNON LARGE ALWAYS SAID HE THOUGHT HANK WAS ALREADY DEAD IN THE BACK SEAT. ,HE SAID HANK HAD A BLANKET OVER HIM .HANK NEVER GOT OUT OF HIS CAR THAT NIGHT. THE CAR TRAVELED ON OLD HIGH WAY 11 TO ABINGDON VA THEN HAD TO TAKE HWY 19 TO LEBANON VA .WE HAD NO INTERSTATE IN THIS PART OF THE CONTURY IN 1952 .ALSO THE TEXACO SERVICE STATION OWNER KEPT HANKS WILLIAMS CREDIT CARD SLIP AND NEVER TURNED IT FOR CREDIT .HE HAS IT AS OF THIS DAY.
January 16, 2022 @ 12:44 am
Did Vernon Large give a press interview about Charles Carr at the Texaco station? I would be interested in reading the article.
January 16, 2022 @ 2:37 pm
Forgot to mention, my father was driving the slow moving car that Charles Carr passed resulting in the ticket. The Cadillac passed us again after the ticket.
January 6, 2018 @ 10:58 pm
CREDIT CARD ?? IN 1952 ?? REALLY ?? SIGH ..
November 11, 2019 @ 4:46 pm
I thought the same thing even before I saw your post John.
May 10, 2024 @ 7:14 am
It’s like she’s trying to make carr look bad. He already said there was a second driver. She’s trying to talk smack like she has the facts straight and nobody else does. No offense.