Sheppard was conceived in Banks, Alabama. She met Hank Williams recently

Sheppard was conceived in Banks, Alabama. She met Hank Williams recently. At 20 years old, she was differentiated from her first spouse and a single parent to their girl, Lycretia. In a service performed only ten days after her separate got to be last (and before the close of the 60-day holding up period then needed after a separation), she and Hank were hitched before a Justice of the Peace at a corner store in Andalusia, Alabama, in December 1944. With Audrey taking up the motivational part that had once been the elite safeguard of Hank's mother Lilly, the recently married couple went to Nashville aim on gathering musician and music distributer Fred Rose, one of the heads of Acuff-Rose Publishing. 

Rose enjoyed Hank's melodies and approached him to record two sessions for Sterling Records, which brought about two singles: "Never Again" in December 1946 and "Honky Tonkin'" in February 1947. Both demonstrated effective and Hank marked an agreement with MGM Records ahead of schedule in 1947, with Rose as Hank's supervisor and record maker. 

Then, Audrey soon started to push for her spot in the spotlight. Since the begin of their relationship, Hank had some of the time permitted her to join with his support band; and additionally singing, Audrey played the upright bass. Nation biographer Colin Escott thought of "Her two part harmonies with Hank were similar to an expansion of their wedded life in that she battled him for predominance on every note." They recorded a few two part harmonies together and Audrey offered on the accompanying recordings: "Lost on the River", "I Heard My Mother Praying for Me", "Dear Brother", "Jesus Remembered Me", "The Pale Horse and His Rider", "Jesus Died for Me", "Help Me Understand", Something Got a Hold of Me", "I Want to Live and Love", and "Where the Soul of Man Never Dies". 

It has been proposed that Audrey composed the "Manor on the Hill" on the grounds that Hank had a mental obstacle in the wake of gathering with Fred Rose. 

In ahead of schedule 1948, strains developed in their relationship as Hank started to misuse liquor once more. Audrey left, having given Hank the decision of liquor or her. They would in the end rejoin, and on May 26, 1949, Audrey conceived Randall Hank Williams. Hank nicknamed him "Bocephus", after the name of nation ventriloquist Rod Brasfield's sham. Audrey would show up at the Grand Ole Opry after the conception and formally rename the youngster Hank Williams, Jr. In the mean time, Audrey declined to let Hank embrace Lycretia on the grounds that she was apprehensive he would take her in the event that they separated. 

On December 31, after claims of shared betrayals and the resumption of Hank's issues with liquor and pills, Audrey called him from a lodging and let him know to be out of their Tennessee house when she returned. Hank supposedly answered with the prophetic, "Audrey I won't live an alternate year without you." However, in June, Audrey and Hank separated for the second time. She was honored the house and their kid, and a large portion of his future eminences (on the condition she never remarried). Months after Hank's demise, towards the end that year, she paid his second wife Billie Jean Jones $30,000 to surrender the title of and depiction as "Hank Williams' Widow"; both had been utilizing the portrayal professionally. Lilly was in uncommon concurrence with her on this issue.