On this day (March 5) in 1963, country singers Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and pilot Randy Hughes died in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee. They were returning to Nashville from a concert in Kansas City, Kansas when the Piper PA-24 Comanche crashed into a wooded area. Cline was only 30 years old and her star was still rising.
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Cline only released three albums during her lifetime. Her self-titled debut album dropped in 1957. Then, she released Showcase in 1961 and Sentimentally Yours in 1962. Several studio albums and compilations of her songs would be released by various record labels including Decca, MCA, Prism, Rhino, and Curb in the decades after her passing.
While Cline had a tragically short career, her influence on the music world is undeniable. Her work with producer Owen Bradley helped to define the Nashville Sound. Additionally, her deeply emotional vocal delivery influenced countless singers across multiple genres. LeAnn Rimes, Lucinda Williams, and several others count the “I Fall to Pieces” singer among their biggest influences.
The Plane Crash That Killed Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, and Hawkshaw Hawkins performed a benefit show at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas on March 4. In the early afternoon hours of March 5, the Grand Ole Opry stars boarded the small plane piloted by Randy Hughes at Fairfax Municipal Airport in Kansas City.
They flew from Kansas City to Rogers, Arkansas, where they stopped to refuel. After a fifteen-minute stop, they took off again to finish the flight. Hughes contacted Dyersburg Regional Airport in Dyersburg, Tennessee at around 5 PM to request a weather report for Western and Middle Tennessee. The news wasn’t good but Hughes was confident he could handle the weather conditions that hampered visibility.
Approximately an hour and a half later, the plane went down five miles west of Camden, Tennessee, leaving no survivors.
Grant Turner announced the tragedy the next morning on WSM Radio. “Ladies and gentlemen, in all my 30 years of radio, this is the hardest job I’ve ever had to do,” Turner began. “It pains me greatly to announce that Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and their pilot Randy Hughes were flying from Kansas City to Nashville and crashed in the Camden, Tennessee area,” he announced. “After an all-night search in bad weather, the plan has finally been located and all aboard perished.”
Featured Image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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