Purported Daughter Loses Bid for Hank Williams’ Royalties

A woman who says she is Hank Williams Sr.’s illegitimate daughter lost a Supreme Court bid today for a share of the late country music legend’s copyright royalties.

The court, without comment, let stand a ruling that Cathy Yvonne Stone waited too long to sue over the royalties.

Cathy Stone, 36, was born in Alabama five days after Williams died Jan. 1, 1953, at age 29.

Her mother, Bobbie Jett, and Williams had signed an agreement a few months earlier in which he acknowledged that he might be the father of the 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 Williams Jr., now a country music star.

Mary Deupree first told her adopted daughter in 1973 that the elder Williams may have been her natural father. But Cathy Stone did not take any immediate legal action to establish her real parentage. She waited until 1985, soon after marrying attorney Keith Adkinson.