“Top” Ten Music Aviation Tragedies: Patsy Cline (#4)

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Here’s another one that everyone’s probably been waiting for. And, in an interesting side note to the theme, I’ve been to the location of the plane crashes for the remaining people on the list. I stopped at this one on my first day of vacation. Here we go. #4: Patsy Cline I’ve got a head full of feeling higher And an earful of Patsy Cline There is just no one who can touch her Hell, I’ll hang on every line (Jimmy Buffett, “Miss You So Badly”) The crash site has really improved since I was first there. I’ll detail that in a separate discussion. Patsy was blazing trails for country music, women, and women in country music. Even though Kitty Wells had already had a #1 song for a woman in 1953, there were only a total of six songs to hit #1 featuring a female (one duet [the Davis Sisters], one solo [“Heartbreak USA” by Kitty Wells], one trio [the Browns, two female and one male]; and three featuring male/female duets) before “I Fall to Pieces” hit #1 in 1961. I told part of the story when Hawkshaw Hawkins was featured on the list. The pilot of the plane was Patsy’s manager, Randy Hughes. He’d already been delayed in getting back to Nashville from the benefit concert in Kansas City because of thunderstorms, and when they refueled in Dyersburg, Tennessee Hughes was warned that the weather between there and Nashville was bad. They could be accommodated for the evening and get a fresh start with good weather in the morning. Nope. Randy “had” to get them home. Thirteen minutes after takeoff, the “race” to get home to Nashville ended on a hillside outside of Camden, Tennessee. Patsy is the only one of the three music victims in the Country Music Hall of Fame, but I’ll address that later. Meanwhile let’s cherish the incredible, timeless music she left us. Patsy Cline Born Virginia Patterson Hensley September 8, 1932 - March 5, 1963 (age 30) Place of crash: Camden, Tennessee Here’s one of my favorites, the swinging but still country rendition of “Walkin’ After Midnight”: