Patsy Cline died here on March 5, 1963, at thirty. Her plane crashed at Camden, killing her, Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and her manager Randy Hughes. They were coming home to Nashville from a benefit in Kansas City, Kansas, for the family of a disc jockey who had died in a car crash. The plane refueled in Rogers, Arkansas, then landed at Dyersburg, Tennessee, where the airfield manager suggested they stay the night because of high winds and bad weather. Hughes, the pilot, was not trained in instrument flying and said they would be there before long. The plane took off at 6:07 p.m. and was found the next dawn in the woods about ninety miles from Nashville.
The memorial is an engraved rock beside a gravel path off Mt. Carmel Road, a few miles from Camden. Visitors report no gate, parking lot or facilities, only a quiet slope in the trees, so treat it as a memorial and leave it as you find it. Cline is buried in Winchester, Virginia, her hometown.
She had signed to Decca, joined the Grand Ole Opry and played Carnegie Hall by 1961. Female singers of country, pop and jazz still remember her for her voice and her assertiveness.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour