Hiram King Williams could not have been born at a worst time, the onset of the Great Depression. He wasn’t born in the right place either, hailing from tiny Butler County. And, he didn’t come from a musical family. His mom was a caretaker and entrepreneur — a true hustler. His dad was a WWI veteran, a logger, and an engineer on the railways for the WT Smith Lumber Company.
But, for the time and place, his parents were well-connected — his father was a Mason and his mom was in the Order of the Eastern Star. His father had a good job.