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Patsy Cline's Plane Goes Down in 1963Country Music Stars Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins Also on Board
On March 5, 1963, country music star Patsy Cline died in a tragic plane crash. Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Randy Hughes were also killed.
It was one of the saddest days in country music history. Grand Ole Opry stars Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins, along with Cline's manager Randy Hughes, were returning home from a benefit performance in Kansas when their single-engine plane went down in a wooded area near Camden, Tennessee, killing all on board. Jack Call's Death Sets Off Chain ReactionJack Wesley "Cactus Jack" Call (1923-1963) was a popular country music disc jockey in the Kansas City area. On January 24, 1963, Call sustained serious injuries in a car accident in Independence, Missouri, dying the following day. In order to lend assistance to Call's widow, many of country music's finest agreed to donate their services in several benefit concerts. One performance took place on March 2, 1963, in Birmingham, Alabama, with Patsy Cline, Tex Ritter and Jerry Lee Lewis headlining the affair. Following the performance, Cline and several other country music stars agreed to appear at a second concert in Kansas. Benefit Concert in Kansas CityOn March 3, 1963, a second benefit concert was staged at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas. Performing were such country music notables as George Jones, Billy Walker, Dottie West, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and George Riddle. Also taking the stage was a flu-ridden Patsy Cline, who in a white chiffon dress wowed the audience, closing the show with a touching rendition of "I'll Sail My Ship Alone." Return to NashvilleBecause of bad weather, Patsy Cline and her party were forced to stay over the following day. On March 5, however, the skies had cleared, with the 30-year-old Cline calling her mother from the airport, informing her that they would be returning to Nashville shortly. Piloting the yellow, single-engine Piper Comanche was 34-year-old Randy Hughes, Cline's manager and a former country music recording artist himself. Also on board was 49-year-old Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas and 41-year-old Harold "Hawkshaw" Hawkins. Cowboy Copas, Randy Hughes' father-in-law, had scored several top ten country music hits, including "Filipino Baby" and "Alabam." Hawkshaw Hawkins, married to country singer Jean Shepard who was pregnant with their son at the time, had also enjoyed some success, recording such hits as "Pan American" and "Slow Poke." Refueling in Dyersburg, Camden CrashThe Piper Comanche landed in Dyersburg, Tennessee, for a refueling stop. An airfield manager made the suggestion that Hughes stay the night, as high winds and bad weather lay ahead. Hughes declined the offer, telling the man, "I've already come this far. We'll be there before you know it." Departing Dyersburg at 6:07 pm, the Piper Comanche hit a swath of bad weather, going down 13 minutes later in a forest near Camden, Tennessee, about 90 miles from Nashville. Nashville Mourns Patsy ClineThe news of a missing plane saturated the airwaves, with searchers later discovering the crash site the following morning. When asked by reporters if the bodies had been found, Civil Defense official Dean Brewer replied, "There's not enough to count...They're all in small pieces." "4 Opry Stars Die in Crash" read the headline of the Nashville Banner of March 6, 1963, putting into indelible print what many had found almost impossible to believe. Patsy Cline, singer of such immortal ballads as "Crazy," "Sweet Dreams" and "Walkin' After Midnight," had departed this Earth, along with Randy Hughes, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins. It was, as one historian later put it, the darkest day in country music history.
The copyright of the article Patsy Cline's Plane Goes Down in 1963 in Traditional Country Music is owned by William J. Felchner. Permission to republish Patsy Cline's Plane Goes Down in 1963 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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