On this day one hundred years ago, Harold Hawkins was born in Huntington, West Virginia.
As a boy Harold once helped a neighbor track down a couple of missing fishing rods. In return, that neighbor bestowed on him the nickname he would forever be known as: Hawkshaw Hawkins, after a character in a comic strip of the day.
Hawkins grew fascinated with music and managed to get his hands on a guitar by trading some captured rabbits for one. He played on local radio as a teenager before winning a talent competition and getting a regular gig on WSAZ radio in Huntington.
After a stint in the army in World War II, Hawkshaw became a regular on WWVA’s Jamboree, then signed his first recording contract.
In 1954 he began performing on ABC radio and TV on the Ozark Jubilee, in Springfield, Missouri, then later joined the Grand Ole Opry. His biggest hit was “Lonesome 7-7203,” which hit the Billboard Country Chart on its release on March 2, 1963. He was on his way to stardom.
But it was not to be.
The day after his song was released Hawkins performed with Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas, another country star, at a benefit concert in Kansas City, Kansas, for the family of dj “Cactus” Jack Call, who had been killed in an auto accident. Two days later, on March 5, 1963, Cline, Copas and Hawkins boarded a private plane for a flight to Nashville. After a fuel stop in Dyersburg, the plane took off again. A half-hour later they flew into bad weather and crashed at 6:29 p.m. near Camden, Tennessee, with all on-board killed.
Hawkshaw Hawkins was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2009.
