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Patsy, HawkShaw, Cowboy, Jack, & Randy In a stormy and forbidding twilight on that fateful night of March 5, 1963....three of Country Music's greatest talents perished, but they left a country music legacy through their songs that will live in the hearts of their fans forever.... Grand Ole Opry Stars Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and pilot Randy Hughes, who was Patsy's manager, were enroute from Kansas City to Nashville when their Piper Comanche 250 slammed into a densely wooded area three miles northwest of Camden, Tennessee, near the firetower during a rainstorm. The last place they stopped before the crash was at the Dyersburg Muncipal Airport. They were trying to get back to Nashville for a Recording Session the following morning. Country Music suffered another loss when Jack Anglin, who was a member of the Grand Ole Opry...and one half of the Johnnie & Jack Act... was killed on his way to Patsy's funeral services in Nashville. The Grand Ole Opry went on the Saturday night following the services, but not as usual. Opry manager Ott Devine read a tribute....which in part said...
"All of their friends standing with me here tonight on the stage at the
Ryman Auditorium know that it is impossible to put into words our
thoughts....our feelings....our love for Patsy, Hawk, Cope, Jack and Randy.
And we ask that you, in our audience, please stand and join us in a moment
of silent prayer in tribute to them".
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