Hawkshaw Hawkins | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | "The Hawk" "Eleven Yards of Personality" |
| Born | Harold Franklin Hawkins (1921-12-22)December 22, 1921 |
| Died | March 5, 1963(1963-03-05) (aged 41) Camden, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | Country,honky-tonk |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, musician |
| Instrument | Guitar |
| Years active | 1938–1963 |
| Labels | King Records Columbia Records RCA Camden |
Harold Franklin "Hawkshaw"Hawkins (December 22, 1921 – March 5, 1963)[1] was an Americancountry music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 1960s. He was known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn fromblues,boogie andhonky tonk. At 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) tall, Hawkins had an imposing stage presence, and he dressed more conservatively than some other male country singers. Hawkins died in the1963 plane crash that also killed country starsPatsy Cline andCowboy Copas. He was a member of theGrand Ole Opry and was married to country starJean Shepard.
Harold Hawkins was born on December 22, 1921, inHuntington, West Virginia, United States.[1] He gained his nickname as a boy after helping a neighbor track down two missing fishing rods: the neighbor called him "Hawkshaw" after the title character in the comic strip,Hawkshaw the Detective. He traded five trapped rabbits for his first guitar, and performed onWCMI-AM inAshland, Kentucky. At 16, he won a talent competition and a job onWSAZ-AM in Huntington, where he formed Hawkshaw and Sherlock with Clarence Jack. They moved toWCHS-AM inCharleston, West Virginia, in the late 1930s.[1] In 1940, at 19, he married Reva Mason Barbour, a 16-year-old from Huntington.[2]
During 1941, Hawkins traveled the United States with a musical revue. He entered theU.S. Army in 1943 duringWorld War II, and served as an engineer stationed nearParis, Texas, where he and friends performed at local clubs.[2] As a staff sergeant, he was stationed inFrance and fought in theBattle of the Bulge, winning four battle stars during 15 months of combat.[2] He was also stationed inManila and performed there on the radio.[1]
After he was discharged, Hawkins became a regular onWWVA Jamboree from 1945 to 1954 inWheeling, West Virginia.[1] In 1946, he signed a recording contract withKing Records inCincinnati.[1] This nearly never happened, asSyd Nathan almost threw his poorly-made demonstration record away without listening to it. However, upon listening Nathan agreed to record four Hawkins sides in West Virginia.[3] His first two recordings with King, "Pan American" and "Dog House Boogie", were top ten country hits.[1] A minor hit, and the song that became his signature tune, was "The Sunny Side of the Mountain."[1] "Slow Poke", recorded in 1951, was another notable King recording.[1] He stayed with the label until 1953.
Because of his height of six feet, five inches and his outgoing personality, he was christened "Eleven Yards of Personality".[3]
In 1951, Hawkins and his wife adopted four-year old Susan Marlene. They divorced in 1958 and Susan traveled back and forth between her parents in summers and for holidays.
Beginning in 1954, Hawkins was a regular performer onABC Radio andTV'sOzark Jubilee inSpringfield, Missouri, where he met his second wife,Jean Shepard.[4] After a few years withColumbia andRCA Records, he joined the Grand Ole Opry and returned to King; and in 1962 he recorded his biggest hit, "Lonesome 7-7203".[1] It first appeared on theBillboardcountry chart as a March 2, 1963, release, three days before Hawkins died.[1] 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, an accomplishment that eluded him in life.[1]
On March 3, 1963, 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 wasBilly 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 5, Hawkins, Cline and Copas left for Nashville in aPiper Comanche piloted by Randy Hughes, Cline's manager (and Copas's son-in-law). After stopping to refuel in Dyersburg, Tennessee, the craft took off at 6:07 p.m. CT. The plane flew into severe weather and crashed at 6:29 p.m. in a forest near Camden, Tennessee, 90 miles from Nashville. There were no survivors. Fans around the world mourned the loss; Hawkshaw was survived by his daughter Susan Marlene, his young son Donnie, and his wife Jean Shepard, who was pregnant at the time with their second son, Harold Franklin Hawkins Jr.,[1] who was born one month after his father's death.
Hawkins was buried atForest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, in Music Row with Copas and other country music stars.
The location of the airplane crash in the still-remote forest outside Camden is noted by a stone marker, dedicated on July 6, 1996.
Hawkins is remembered in "Love Never Dies" onMartin Simpson's 2003 album,Righteousness and Humidity. In the song, Simpson meets an old truck driver who used to play guitar: "I gave old Hawkshaw aGibson one time, it was aJ-200, man, such a sweet neck! And they say it stood up like a country grave marker, right there in the middle of that plane wreck."
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions[5] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Country | US | ||
| 1946 | "After All (That We Have Meant to Each Other)" | — | — |
| 1947 | "Sunny Side of the Mountain" | — | — |
| 1948 | "Pan American" | 9 | — |
| "Dog House Boogie" | 6 | — | |
| 1949 | "I Wasted a Nickel" | 15 | — |
| 1951 | "I Love You a Thousand Ways" | 8 | — |
| "Rattlesnakin' Daddy" | — | — | |
| "I'm Waiting Just for You" | 8 | — | |
| "Slow Poke" | 7 | 26 | |
| 1954 | "Waitin' for My Baby" | — | — |
| "Rebound" | — | — | |
| 1955 | "Ko Ko Mo (I Love You So)"(w/ Rita Robbins) | — | — |
| "Car Hoppin' Mama" | flip | — | |
| 1956 | "It Would Be a Doggone Lie" | — | — |
| "My Fate (Is In Your Hands) | — | — | |
| 1957 | "(Is My Ring) On Your Finger" | — | — |
| 1958 | "Freedom" | — | — |
| 1959 | "Soldier's Joy" | 15 | 87 |
| 1960 | "Patanio" | — | — |
| "Put a Nickel in the Jukebox" | — | — | |
| 1962 | "Twenty Miles from the Shore" | — | — |
| "Darkness On the Face of the Earth" | — | — | |
| "I Can't Seem to Say Goodbye" | flip | — | |
| 1963 | "Lonesome 7-7203" | 1 | 108 |
| International | |
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| National | |
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| Other | |
