In March 1963, Patsy was still working hard but a little depressed. Some
friends later thought that she had had premonitions about dying...
She performed at a benefit in
Kansas, together with George Jones and Dottie West. Dottie West offered her a
ride back to Tennessee, in her car but Patsy did not want to go on the long 16
hour drive. She decided to fly, though
the weather was not good. The plane flew to Dyersburg Tennessee and landed
there, but the airfield manager suggested they stay the night as the weather
was increasingly bad. Patsy’s pilot
preferred to go on. But he was not trained on instruments flying… The plane took off again at 6.07 but crashed
in woodlands outside Camden Tennessee, about 90 miles from Nashville. Roger
Miller, her friend and others scoured the woods when they heard that the plane
was missing. They found the plane... but
there were no survivors. Patsy was dead
at the age of 30.
Her death was particularly tragic as she had been working so hard and
trying to fulfil her early promise…Her powerful voice and ability to portray
emotion in her singing had lifted her above many of the “girl singers” of her
time and made her a seminal artist. She
came along when women singers were beginning to overcome the idea that they
were just eye candy… and she herself was a strong tough woman who did not “act
feminine”…
Her legacy has been nurtured by her daughter
Julie Fudge and her husband Charlie who have produced documentaries and shows
in her memory…
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