ROOTS of Country Music

The Professional Work of Hawkshaw Hawkins

(Dec. 22, 1921 - Mar. 5, 1963)

Career Highlights

Barn Dance Affiliate

• KWTO Ozark Jubilee -1955
• WFIL Hayloft Hoedown
• WWVA Wheeling Jamboree (1945 to 1954)

Grand Ole Opry Member -1962

Radio, Film & TV

• Ernest Tubb's Midnight Jamboree

Billboard Chart Data 

• No. 1 Singles: 1
• Top-20 Singles: 8
• Crossover Singles:
• Charted Singles: 1
• Years Active: (1948-1963)

Career Labels

• King Records (1948-1951)
• Columbia Records (1959)

Billboard Top-10 Singles

1. Pan American -1948
2. Dog House Boogie
3. I Wasted a Nickle -1949
4. I Love You a Thousand Ways -1951
5. I'm Waiting Just For You
6. Slow Poke, 1
7. Soldier's Joy -1959
8. Lonesome 7-7203*#

*No. 1 Chart Single

#Biggest Chart Single

1Crossover Single

Album Discography

King Records

• Hawkshaw Hawkins Sings Grand Ole Opry Favorites, Vol. 1 (1958)
• Hawkshaw Hawkins Sings Grand Ole Opry Favorites, Vol. 2 (1958)
• 1959: Hawkshaw Hawkins Sings Grand Ole Opry Favorites, Vol. 3 (1959)
• Big Beat Jazz (1959)
• Taken from Our Vaults, Vol. 1 (1963)
• Taken from Our Vaults, Vol. 2 (1963)
• The All New Hawkshaw Hawkins (1963)
• Taken from Our Vaults, Vol. 3 (1964)

Gladwynne

• Country Western Cavalcade(1959)

Harmony

• The Great Hawkshaw Hawkins

La Brea

• Hawkshaw Hawkins(1959)

RCA Camden

• Hawkshaw Hawkins Sings Hawkshaw Hawkins
• The Country Gentlemen (1966)

Starday

• Gone, But Not Forgotten(1965)

Lonesome 7-7203: The hawkshaw hawkins Story 

On March 2, 1963, Lonesome 7-7303 was released and it quickly soared to the top of Billboard’s country charts. Hawkshaw Hawkins finally attained his long sought after number one song. No one knows what might have transpired if the crash hadn't happened. Maybe someday he will be recognized for his pure natural talent and his impact on country music, instead of a passenger on an ill-fated plane crash that took the life of Patsy Cline.

Harold (Hawkshaw) Hawkins was born on December 22, 1921 in Huntington, West Virginia. Hawkins was known for his rich, smooth vocals and at six foot five inches tall, he had an imposing stage presence. His tasteful western suits set him apart from the gaudy outfits of other male country singers.

Hawkins was an immensely popular performer in country music for many years without the benefit of major chart success. By the time his big hit finally charted, his time in the spotlight ran out when he perished in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and randy Hughes.

During 1941, Hawkins traveled the United States with a musical revue. He entered the US Army in 1943 during World War II, and served as an engineer stationed near Paris, Texas where he and friends performed at local clubs. As a staff sergeant, he was stationed in France and fought in the Battle of the Bulge, winning four battle stars during 15 months of combat.

After he was discharged, he started on radio, becoming a regular on WWVA's Wheeling Jamboree (1946 - 1954). In 1948, he signed a recording contract with King Records. His first two singles, Pan American (No. 9, 1948) and Dog House Boogie (No. 6, 1948), made the top-ten on Billboard’s country chart. Sunny Side of the Mountain, which became his signature tune and another King recording, never charted.

Hawkins stayed with King Records until 1953, when he left the label to join RCA Records, but the association failed to produce any chart activity. Over the next three years, he had four other top-ten singles; Dog House Boogie (No. 6, 1948), I Love You a Thousand Ways (No. 8, 1951), I'm Waiting Just for You (No. 8, 1951) and Slow Poke (No. 7, 1951), all with the  King label.

In 1954, Hawkins was a regular performer on ABC Radio and TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfiel, Missouri, where he met his second wife, Jean Shepard. In 1955, Hawkins became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. He joined Columbia's roster in 1959, releasing the top-twenty single Soldier's Joy (No. 15, 1959).

His label-jumping from Columbia in the late 1950s and back to King in 1963, moved his material closer to mainstream country. However, his time in the spotlight ran out, although his biggest chart song (Lonesome 7-7203) had finally surfaced.

King released the song as a comeback on March 3, 1963. Though it became a number one hit, Hawkins didn't live to see it reach the top of the charts. Two days after Lonesome 7-7203 enter the Billboard country charts, Hawkins died in a fatal plane crash that also took the lives of Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Randy Hughes.

Hawkins had been in the hunt for a No. 1 song that eluded him throughout his career; a song necessary to revitalize his mediocre chart activity. Unfortunately, with the subsequent success of this Justun Tubb composition, Hawk's career ended at its pinnacle.

The Accident

On March 3, 1963, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas performed at a benefit concert in Kansas City, Kansas for the family of disc jockey Cactus Jack Call, who had died the previous December in 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 plane ticket and instead flew back later in a private plane in Walker's place.

On March 5, Hawkins, Cline and Copas left for Nashville, Tennessee, USA in a Piper Comanche piloted by Cline's manager, Randy Hughes. After stopping to refuel in Dyersbur, Tennessee, the craft took off at 6:07 p.m. (CT). The plane flew into severe weather and crashed at around 6:20 p.m. in a forest near Camden, Tennessee, ninety miles from Nashville. There were no survivors. The reported time of the crash varies sometime between 6:20pm and 7:00pm. Patsy's watch was reportedly stopped at 6:20pm

Researched, written and compiled by Richard Bell, country music historian, Roots of Country Music. Jul., 27, 2010.