Country Musician. He was an American country singer, who reached stardom during his career from the 1950s until his death. At 6'5" tall, he was a handsome man, who dressed more conservatively than other country singers, which made a strong stage presence. Born Harold Franklin Hawkins, he gained the nickname "Hawkshaw" from the title character in a newspaper comic strip. After selling five rabbits that he got from a hunting trip, he purchased his first homemade guitar at age 13 and taught himself to play. At the age of 16, he placed first at a talent competition at a Huntington radio station, giving him regular radio performances. Making a professional name for himself in the business, he traveled from West Virginia to South Carolina, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, appearing on radio stations. During World War II, he joined the United States Army in November of 1943 serving in the Army Engineering Corps. While stationed in Texas, he performed at local night clubs. As a staff sergeant, he was stationed in France and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, receiving four battle stars during 15 months of combat. While part of the 97th Engineering Maintenance Company, he was also stationed in Manila, performing on the radio with much popularity. After the war, he performed regularly from 1946 to 1954 on the country music radio program, "Wheeling Jamboree." In July of 1948 he left West Virginia for Philadelphia, appeared not only on the radio but on the ABC television program "Hayloft Hoedown." He returned to West Virginia after six months, after gaining a broad fan base. By September of 1950, he had successfully formed a new band, the "West Virginia Night Hawks" and by 1952, he and the band were on tour. By June of 1955, he was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry. Besides singing, he played several musical instruments including the guitar, the five-string banjo, mandolin, violin, bass and harmonica. He also wrote ten songs including the first song he recorded, "The Way I Love You," in 1946. With King Records, he recorded five top 10 record hits. After leaving King Records, he went to RCA Victor and Columbia Records. Upon returning to King Records in 1962, he recorded his biggest hit, "Lonesome 7-7203," which spent 25 weeks on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts, peaking to #1 on May 4, 1963. 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. He had a ticket to return home on a commercial flight, but gave it to a friend who needed to be home for an emergency. 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 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 Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas . The pilot, 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 they 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. At the age of nineteen, he married for the first time to his 16-year-old sweetheart and the couple had a daughter, who has a musical career. After they divorced, he married Jean Shepard, another famed country music singer who is also a part of the Grand Ole Opry. The couple had two sons.