Hank Williams used to listen to Henry Lyon on the radio.
You’d think it was the other way around.
When Lyon, pastor of Highland Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, stepped up to the mic at Williams’ funeral Jan. 4, 1953, he didn’t even know the man in the casket. But Williams, a country music superstar, knew Lyon — from the radio.
One night in his mother’s boarding house in Montgomery, Williams was lying in bed listening to Highland Baptist’s evening service broadcast live over the airwaves.
When Lyon closed his sermon, Williams told his mother, “That’s the man I want to preach my funeral.”
So preach it Lyons did.
More than 2,500 people attended the funeral at Montgomery City Auditorium and a crowd of about 25,000 gathered outside. “I cannot preach the funeral of Hank Williams. It has already been preached in music and song on the radio,” Lyon said. “When Hank played on his guitar, he played on the heartstrings of millions of Americans.”
And when Lyon preached on the radio, Williams listened.
Have you ever been impacted by a radio show, a TV show or a movie? How? The Alabama Baptist would love to hear your story. Please email news@thealabamabaptist.org or write us at 3310 Independence Drive, Birmingham, AL 35209.
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