Hawkshaw Hawkins

AKA:

Eleven Yards of Personality

Birth Name:

Harold Franklin Hawkins

Birth Date:

December 22, 1921

Birth Place:

Huntington, West Virginia

Death Date:

March 5, 1963

Place of Death:

2904 Mt Carmel Road, Camden, Tennessee

Age:

Cause of Death:

Plane crash

Cemetery Name:

Forest Lawn Memorial Garden

Claim to Fame:

Music

Hawkshaw Hawkins was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 1960s. He was known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky tonk. At 6 foot 5 inches tall, Hawkins had an imposing stage presence and he dressed more conservatively than some other male country singers. In 1962 he recorded his biggest hit, "Lonesome 7-7203". It first appeared on the Billboard country chart as a March 2, 1963 release, three days before Hawkins died. The song was absent from the charts for the two weeks following his death, but re-appeared on March 23 and spent 25 weeks on the chart, four of them at No. 1. Hawkins died in the 1963 plane crash that also killed country stars Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and was married to country star Jean Shepard.

Not-So-Fun Facts

On March 3, 1963, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas performed at a benefit concert at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kansas for the family of disc jockey “Cactus” Jack Call, who had died in January after an automobile accident. Among the performers was Billy Walker, who received an urgent phone call and needed to return to Nashville immediately. Hawkins gave Walker his commercial airline ticket and instead flew back in a private plane in Walker’s place.

On March 5th, at 6:29 pm, the aircraft crashed into a wooded, swampy area 1 mile north of U.S. Route 70 and 5 miles west of Camden. The aircraft was destroyed on impact and all four occupants were killed. The witness described hearing a dull-sounding crash, followed by complete silence. Investigators concluded that the crash was caused by the non-instrument-rated pilot’s decision to operate under visual flight rules in instrument meteorological conditions.

Billy Walker, nicknamed The Tall Texan, went on to have more than 30 charting records during a nearly 60-year career and was a longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Forest Lawn Memorial Garden

1150 Dickerson Pike

Goodlettsville, Tennessee, 37072

USA

North America

Grave Location:

Music Row, Plot 10-C-1

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery the office will be on your right and you will take the first left and drive 100 feet to the sign for “Music Row.” Walk 10 feet past the Music Row sign and in this very narrow section along the road you will find the final resting place of Hawkshaw Hawkins.