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Die Country-Tragödie vom 5.3.1963
Archiv Hauke Strübing
In diesem 4. Teil der Beitragsserie anläßlich des Todes von Paty Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, Randy Hughes und von Jack Anglin lesen Sie jetzt die Originalbeiträge, die THE MUSIC REPORTER in seiner Ausgabe vom 16. März 1963 an verschiedenen Stellen veröffentlichte. Unterhalb der Beiträge sind einige Singles aufgeführt, die THE MUSIC REPORTER in derselben Ausgabe als Neuheiten aufführte.
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THE MUSIC REPORTER, MARCH 16, 1963:
TRAGEDY HITS INDUSTRY
CRASH - WRECK FATAL TO CLINE, COPAS HAWKINS, HUGHES, & ANGLIN
Nashville—Music City kept a tense, 11-hour vigil through Tuesday night and on into the dawning of Wednesday, Mar. 6, in a dramatic prelude to a grief-charged announcement at 6 a.m. of the worst music industry tragedy on record. The wreckage of a missing Piper-Commanche four-seater plane carrying four WSM Grand Ole Opry entertainers was found scrambled across a scrub wood hollow 90 miles west of Nashville. There were no survivors.
WSM Grand Ole Opry Stars Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and manager-musician Randy Hughes died instantly in the vicious holacaust timetabled at about 7 o'clock Tuesday night, one hour after they were last seen alive.
Hurrying home from a benefit show in Kansas City in the face of wind and rain swept skies, pilot Randy Hughes, Patsy's personal manager and owner of the aircraft, chose to bridge the 50 air-miles between Dyersburg, Tenn. and Nashville rather than embrace the urgings of an airport manager to remain overnight. An hour later, 100 miles from that airport, crash area residents filed reports of hearing an airplane in trouble . . . some said they heard the crash. The reports signalled the initial alarm touching off the long-distance vigil centered in the studios of WSM Radio.
Eleven hours later a sheriff's dispatcher flashed word the wreckage had been spotted. In rummaging through the debris splattered landscape at the crash site, searchers were only able to identify the victims as the Opry entertainers only through bits of clues—a lettered belt ... a gold ladies shoe ... a rhinestone covered jacket. The first person on the scene told police, "I almost had a nervous breakdown when I saw it. It was terrible."
Stunned, Music City reeled in the backwash of grief. Local radio announcers choked back tears as they haltingly read the newscasts telling of the disaster. Jack Stapp, president of pop-formated WKDA radio and former WSM program director and Opry producer voiced an on-the-air eulogy in a voice hoarse with sorrow. He said the four had, "... helped make Music City what it is today."
WSM's Bill Williams and T. Tommy Cutrer and other staff members put together an hour-long memorial program aired at 10 a.m. the day of the crash. Ralph Emery dedicated his entire all-night C&W showcase to the star-crossed victims that night, pausing frequently to gain composure as he talked about the careers of the victims.
Shockwaves of grief spread to Capitol Hill. Tennessee Governor Frank Clement, a personal friend of the victims declared, ". . . the entertainment world suffers a great professional loss. Tennessee suffers a great personal loss." The state legislature offered a minute of silent prayer.
The frantic pace of the music trade slowed almost to a halt as key music figures abandoned daily routine and moved quickly to the side of the bereaved families. All four of the C&W figures had exceptionally tight family ties.
For the Copas family it was a double measure of grief - Randy Hughes was married to Copas' daughter Kathy. Copas also left a widow, a son 19 and a son 12. Randy and Kathy have one son.
Jean Shepherd, the Capitol Records and Grand Ole Opry star wife of Hawkshaw Hawkins, collapsed in a state of shock when told of the crash. The pair have a two year old son, and she is expecting a second baby in about three weeks. They also have an adopted daughter.
Patsy Cline's husband is a non-pro, Charles Dick and they have a son 2, and a daughter 4.
Crowds jammed the funeral home where the bodies were kept in state — mostly tradesmen and friends and only a few fans. All of the coffins were sealed and 11 by 14 inch photos of each were displayed.
Joint funeral services were held for Copas and Hughes Friday morning and Hawkins was interned later the same day. A prayer service was held for Miss Cline Thursday afternoon (Opry star Jack Anglin of the Johnny and Jack team was killed in an auto crash enroute to this service - see separate story) and her body was taken to Winchester, Va., her home, for burial services Saturday.
*****
MUSIC CITY GRIEVES
A Statement by The Publisher:
As tragedy struck in Tennessee last week, wiping out the
lives of four famous stars and that of a well known talent manager, a pall of
grief fell upon Music City and brought out the intense loyalty of show
business personalities for one another.
In a business where rivalry is a by-word and crowd applause mixes admiration
with little stabs of envy, there was only a dismal, sympathetic sorrow that
five such excellent people could come to violent, untimely end. The men and
women who knew and worked with Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas,
Jack Anglin and Randy Hughes met in the line of mourners, but missing were the
bubbly voice, the hearty handshake that characterize Grand Ole Opry
performers' greetings in Music City. Instead, there was a mute nod of the
head, a shrug of the shoulders, the mere lifting of a finger in recognition.
At the prayer service procession there was an unspoken acceptance that this was "all within the family." It shocked the survivors into a new "one-ness", for as everyone in Music City knows, beneath the superficial competition there is enduring friendship among the entertainment folks and the suffering is borne by all.
*****
FOOTNOTES TO DISASTER
*
Last week's grim show biz disaster fell, almost to the day, four years after the private plane crash during an Iowa snowstorm that killed recording greats Buddy Holly, J. P. (Big Bopper) Richards and Richie Valens.*
The Kansas City benefit for C&W deejay Cactus Jack Call who was killed in a January auto crash was set by Hap Peebles and starred, in addition to the crash victims, Roy Acuff, Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper, Dottie West, Ralph Emery, George Jones, George Riddle and Billy Walker. $3,000 was raised. Walker almost flew home on the doomed plane but decided to fly commercial airlines instead.*
Grand Ole Opry manager Ott Devine pointed out that this was the first time any Opry star has been killed on the road to or from a date in spite of an estimated 9-million miles covered by the stars in playing some 3,000 shows a year.*
Starday Records mailed a record entitled "Goodbye Kisses" on Mar. 6, the morning after the air crash—the artist is Cowboy Copas.
*****
WRECK SPLITS J&J TEAM
Nashville — Spilling into the lobby and around the front steps of a Music City Funeral home, mourners attending a prayer service for air crash victim Patsy Cline were staggered by the announcement that 46-year old Jack Anglin, tenor singing half of the Johnnie & Jack team, had just died in an auto crash less than two miles away.
Johnnie Wright and his wife Kitty Wells were told of Jack's death as they walked out of the chapel. Apparently, Jack was on his way to the prayer service when his auto jumped a curve, rolled over and smashed into a tree. He was dead-on-arrival at a hospital here.
Johnnie and Jack were related via the latter's marriage to Johnnie's sister. The singing team paired up 30 years ago to become one of the most consistently successful acts in the trade. They played such elite spots as the Roof Garden of the Astor Hotel in New York City and starred on the Louisiana Hayride prior to joining the Grand Ole Opry in 1952.
On record the pair hit the gold circle with the million-selling "Poison Love". "Crying Heart Blues", "Ashes Of Love" and "Hummingbird" were other hits for the Decca recording stars. Their latest release is "Bye Bye Love" b/w "I Overlooked An Orchid"—it's brand new.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete at press time.
*****
VOID LEFT BY STAR LOSS
There's no yard stick for measuring the gap created in the music world by the death of the four entertainment figures who stood so tall in the show world and ranked so high in their private lives.
Patsy Cline, 29, was the come-from-behind girl, who beat a career lull that followed a 1957 Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout success that produced her Coral Record hit, "Walkin' After Midnight", by scrapping back three years later with "I Fall To Pieces" on Decca. She joined the Opry in 1960. Destiny struck again as Patsy brushed death in a car wreck which killed one person and left her life dangling. She came back six months later ... on crutches. "Crazy" hit for her and she climbed to the top as a female vocalist. THE MUSIC REPORTER and other trade magazines crowned her the queen.
Cowboy Copas (his real name is Lloyd) and Hawkshaw Hawkins (his real name is Harold) have long, hard-fought show careers that parallel. Both are of Western stock (in heart and image) even though Hawkins grew up in the mountains of West Virginia. Both stars clung to the true "Country Music" element throughout their careers despite ups and downs. Both realized some of their greatest success in the past two years. The Hawk hit big for King Records with "Twenty Miles From Shore" and "Bad News Travels Fast" while Copas scored mightily with his Starday recording, "Alabam."
Hawkshaw loved the rodeo and staged his own "Hawkshaw Hawkins' Grand Ole Opry and Wild West Show" which featured his own Palomino trick horses. His latest record is "Lonesome 7-7203.' He joined the Opry in 1955.
Copas gave U.S. troops in World War II a piece of home with his legendary King recordings of "Tennessee Waltz", "Filipino Baby" and "Signed Sealed And Delivered." A dedicated churchman, Copas' last album was "Beyond The Sunset." He joined the Opry in 1946.
Randy Hughes, 35, logged roughly one-million miles on the road as a back-up musician for various C&W stars. He was a versatile guitarist and played frequently on recording sessions including all of Patsy's. Randy, married to Copas' daughter Kathy, worked 18-hour days in his personal management agency which handled such acts as Copas, The Willis Brothers and Wilma Lee & Stoney Cooper.
*****
"OUR WINTER LOVE"the music
reporter
SCOOP
best singleANITA BRYANT
BOOKER T & THE MG'S
CATERINA VALENTE
THE DRIFTERS
"LET THE MUSIC PLAY"
COWBOY COPAS
"THE GYPSY GIRL"
BUCK OWENS
"OVER AND OVER AGAIN"
EDDIE BOND
"AS LONG AS I'LL FORGIVE"
(Champion. BMI) 2:50
Stanley A. Kesler-Webb Pierce
"I GUESS I'VE GOT THE BLUES"
In einem weiteren Beitrag veröffentliche ich einige Bilder, Kurzbeiträge, Anzeigen und eine Hitparade aus der Ausgabe vom 16. März 1963 von THE MUSIC REPORTER (u.a. von Jim Reeves, Buck Owens und Justin Tubb).