Nashville, TN (May 27, 2010) ----- After fifty-seven years, Hank Williams continues to inspire and emotionally connect with listeners through his music and that legacy was rewarded on Monday, May 24 at the Pulitzer Prize Award luncheon at Columbia University. Jett Williams attended the ceremony and accepted the posthumous award for her father. Hank Williams Jr. was unable to attend and sent Carolyn Tate, Vice President, Museum Services, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to represent him at the event.
"Hank Williams has always been in a class all his own as the Shakespeare of ‘the common man,’ whom he touched so deeply and for so long with his lyrical genius,” says Jett Williams. “To be so honored by the Pulitzer Prize Board puts my dad in the company of those who have grown to appreciate and now recognize his incredible influence and talent. To hear the strains of ‘Hey Good Lookin' ringing throughout the rotunda at Columbia University as we exited the event would give anyone pause -- it certainly did me.”
The citation honors Hank’s “craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life." Previous honorees for the Special Citation have included Bob Dylan (2008) and John Coltrane (2007).
Photo ID (left to right): Lee Bollinger, President, Columbia University; Jett Williams; Carolyn Tate
Photographer: Eileen Barroso, Columbia University
