films of will rogers
Ten Worst Movie and Music Celebrity Airplane Crashes
It's not a pleasant subject, but airplane crashes have claimed the lives of a number of celebrities through the years. Movie and music personalities have been especially hard hit. Here are ten celebrity plane crashes that rocked the entertainment world.
Patsy Cline, March 5, 1963 - Tennessee Tragedy
Country music singer Patsy Cline (1932-1963) was returning home to Nashville following a benefit concert in Kansas City, Kansas, when her private plane went down in a storm near Camden, Tennessee, on March 5, 1963. Also on board the ill-fated single engine Piper Comanche were the 30-year-old Cline's manager and the plane's pilot Ramsey "Randy" Hughes (1928-1963), along with fellow Grand Ole Opry performers Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas (1913-1963) and Harold "Hawkshaw" Hawkins (1921-1963). Said Civil Defense official Dean Brewer later of the effort to recover the bodies in a heavily wooded area known as Fatty Bottom, "There's not enough to count...They're all in small pieces."
L-r: Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Randy Hughes (Nashville Banner, March 6, 1963)
Buddy Holly, February 3, 1959 - The Day the Music Died
Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holly (1936-1959) was on tour as a featured performer in the Winter Dance Party in early 1959. Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, a private plane was chartered to take Holly and fellow musicians Ritchie Valens (1941-1959) and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson (1930-1959) to their next stop on the tour. The single engine Beechcraft Bonanza, piloted by 21-year-old Roger Peterson, crashed in a farmer's field shortly after takeoff on February 3, 1959, killing all on board. The bodies of Holly and Valens rested near the mangled airplane, while Richardson was hurled over a fence and Peterson remained trapped inside. Singer Don McLean later immortalized the tragedy in his 1971 ballad "American Pie," which he called "the day the music died."
Will Rogers, August 15, 1935 - The Humorist Goes Silent
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