The Hank Williams "Memorial Lost Highway"

It took 44 years since Hank Williams death for his home state to get around to naming something after the lanky, hard-living singer and songwriter who is still influencing popular music.

In 1997, The Alabama State Legislature voted to name a portion of Interstate I-65 the "Hank Williams Memorial Lost Highway" The stretch of highway begins in his boyhood home of Georgiana, Al and runs north to Montgomery, Al where he spent most of his better days and where he was buried after his death on January 1, 1953.

The highway was officially dedicated on Thursday, August 20, 1997. Joining state officials at the dedication ceremony, country music star Hank Williams Jr., 48, said, "It probably should have been done several years ago, but good things take time." The often-reported Williams' claim that alcohol and a woman's lies started him "rolling down that lost highway" is now enshrined along with the entertainer's name as an official part of Alabama history, thanks to the efforts of the Hank Williams Memorial Foundation.