Today in 1963, Patsy Cline recorded in a studio for the last time, cutting “He Called Me Baby.” Her last song in the studio was “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone.”
On March 3, 1963, Cline performed a benefit at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Kansas, for the family of disc jockey “Cactus” Jack Call; he had died in an automobile crash a little over a month earlier. Also performing in the show were George Jones, George Riddle and The Jones Boys, Billy Walker, Dottie West, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, George McCormick, the Clinch Mountain Boys as well as Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins. Despite having a cold, Cline gave three performances: 2:00, 5:15 and 8:15 pm. All the shows were standing-room only. For the 2 p.m. show, she wore a sky-blue tulle-laden dress; for the 5:15 show a red shocker; and for the closing show at 8 p.m., Cline wore white chiffon. Her final song was the last she had recorded the previous month, “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone.”
Cline, who had spent the night at the Town House Motor Hotel, was unable to fly out the day after the concert because Fairfax Airport was fogged in. West asked Patsy to ride in the car with her and husband, Bill, back to Nashville, a 16-hour drive, but Cline refused, saying, “Don’t worry about me, Hoss. When it’s my time to go, it’s my time.” On March 5, she called her mother from the motel and checked out at 12:30 p.m., going the short distance to the airport and boarding a Piper PA-24 Comanche plane, aircraft registration number N7000P. On board were Cline, Copas, Hawkins and pilot Randy Hughes.
The plane stopped once in Missouri to refuel and subsequently landed at Dyersburg Municipal Airport in Dyersburg, Tennessee at 5 p.m. Hawkins had accepted Billy Walker’s place after Walker left on a commercial flight to take care of a stricken family member. The Dyersburg, Tennessee, airfield manager suggested that they stay the night because of high winds and inclement weather, offering them free rooms and meals. But Hughes, who was not trained in instrument flying, said “I’ve already come this far. We’ll be there before you know it.” The plane took off at 6:07 p.m.
Cline’s flight crashed in heavy weather on the evening of March 5, 1963. Her recovered wristwatch had stopped at 6:20 p.m. The plane was found some 90 miles from its Nashville destination, in a forest outside of Camden, Tennessee. Forensic examination concluded that everyone aboard had been killed instantly. Until the wreckage was discovered the following dawn and reported on the radio, friends and family had not given up hope. Endless calls tied up the local telephone exchanges to such a degree that other emergency calls had trouble getting through. The lights at the destination Cornelia Fort Airpark were kept on throughout the night, as reports of the missing plane were broadcast on radio and TV.
Early in the morning, Roger Miller and a friend went searching for survivors: “As fast as I could, I ran through the woods screaming their names–through the brush and the trees–and I came up over this little rise, oh, my God, there they were. It was ghastly. The plane had crashed nose down.” Shortly after the bodies were removed, looters scavenged the area. Some of the items which were recovered were eventually donated to The Country Music Hall of Fame. Among them were Cline’s wristwatch, cigarette lighter, studded belt and three pairs of gold lamé slippers. Cline’s fee and her attire from the last performance were never recovered. Per her wishes, Cline’s body was brought home for her memorial service, which thousands attended. People jammed against the small tent over her gold casket and the grave to take all the flowers they could reach as keepsakes. She was buried at Shenandoah Memorial Park in her hometown of Winchester, Virginia. Her grave is marked with a bronze plaque, which reads: “Virginia H. Dick (‘Patsy Cline’ is noted under her name) ‘Death Cannot Kill What Never Dies: Love’.” A memorial marks the exact place off Mt. Carmel Road in Camden, Tennessee, where the plane crashed in the still-remote forest.
Source: Wikipedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVvGGR30HCM
