Hank Williams' daughter was born five days after his death, made a ward of the state, and won half his estate 34 years later

Hank Williams died in the back seat of his car at 29. Three months earlier he had signed an agreement giving him custody of the child Bobbie Jett was carrying. Antha Belle Jett was born in Montgomery on 6 January 1953. In December 1954 his mother, Lillie Williams Stone, adopted the girl. Lillie died in 1955, and the child became a ward of the state of Alabama. She was adopted by the Deupree family and raised as Cathy Deupree, with no share of royalties. In the early 1980s she learned who her father was. In September 1984 she hired investigative attorney Keith Adkinson, who found the custody contract and evidence that she had been defrauded for others' financial gain. In 1985 an Alabama court declared her Hank's daughter. On 26 October 1987 the Alabama Supreme Court ruled she was entitled to a half-share of the estate, as a victim of fraud and judicial error. Her half-brother, Hank Williams Jr., appealed in federal court. The US Supreme Court declined the case in 1990. She married Adkinson in 1986 and performs as Jett Williams. In 2006 a Tennessee appeals court confirmed that the two heirs alone own Hank's "Mother's Best" radio recordings.