Country Musician. He was an American country singer, who reached stardom during his career from the 1940s until his death. Born into a skilled musical family and always called "Cowboy," he learned to play the guitar and fiddle at an early age and began singing by age 10. He started performing on the radio as a teenager. After singing on the radio in Ohio, Lloyd Estel Copas moved in 1940 to Nashville in hope of finding a musical career with his band, the Gold Star Rangers. Three years later, he received national recognition after replacing Eddy Arnold, who started a solo career, as the vocalist in the Pee Wee King Band and started performing on the Grand Ole Opry. His first solo hit was "Filipino Baby" in 1946. He recorded numerous country ballads and Honky Tonk songs from the late 1940s through the early 1960s, which included "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered" and "Breeze" in 1947, "Tennessee Moon" in 1948, "The Tennessee Waltz," "I'm Waltzing with Tears in My Eyes," "Candy Kisses," and "Hangman's Boogie" all in 1949 and "The Strange Little Girl in 1951." Although covered later by several performers, he was the first to release "The Tennessee Waltz." He wrote or co-wrote several songs including "Signed, Sealed, and Delivered" in 1947, which has been covered by at least a dozen performers including Sammy Davis, Jr, and "Tennessee Moon" in 1948. His 1952 single "'Tis Sweet to Be Remembered," reached number eight on the Country Billboard chart before his decline in popularity. Besides performing at the Opry, he appeared on the television show, "Ozark Jubilee." His career rallied with the release of "Alabam" in 1960. This proved to be the most successful song of his career, peaking at 63 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and on the Country Billboard chart, reaching the #1 spot for 12 weeks and staying on the chart for 34 weeks. On March 3, 1963, he, along with several other country musicians, performed a benefit concert for the family of disc jockey Cactus Jack Call, who was killed in an automobile accident in December of 1962. With bad weather, the entertainers were not able to fly home safely after the concert. After waiting for a day for clear weather, it was decided on the 5th of March that his son-in-law, Randy Hughes, who was not trained in instrument flying, would fly his Piper PA-24 Comanche plane to Tennessee. Many of the performers had decided to drive cars back to their homes. Others on this flight were singers Patsy Cline and Hawkshaw Hawkins. Hughes was Cline's manager. After making a fuel stop in Missouri and another landing at Dyersburg Municipal Airport in Tennessee, the plane departed at 6:07 PM CST for Cornelia Fort Airpark, near Nashville. With pending bad weather and the evening approaching, this was done against the advice of the airfield manager. The performers were offered sleeping quarters if they wanted to have a layover until the morning, yet refused. After encountering bad weather with strong winds making visibility poor, the plane crashed just west of Camden, Tennessee in a hollow along a ridge line in a heavily wooded area known as Fatty Bottom, near a fire tower off Mule Barn Road in Sandy Point, about 5 miles west of the Tennessee River in a swampy area, killing all on board. According to Patsy Cline's watch, which had stopped, the accident occurred at 6:20 PM. A huge boulder with the names of those on the plane inscribed was dedicated on July 6, 1996, marking the location of the crash. In 2004 the Adams County Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society erected an upright bronze marker at the Adam County Courthouse in his honor. He married Edna Lucille Markins and had 3 sons.