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Harold Franklin " Hawkshaw" Hawkins (December 22, 1921 – March 5, 1963) (1992). 9780851129396, Guinness Publishing. ISBN 9780851129396 was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 1960s. He was known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky tonk. At tall, Hawkins had an imposing stage presence, and he dressed more conservatively than some other male country singers. Hawkins died in the 1963 plane crash that also killed country stars Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. He was a member of the Grand Ole Opry and was married to country star Jean Shepard.
During 1941, Hawkins traveled the United States with a musical revue. He entered the U.S. 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. He was also stationed in Manila and performed there on the radio.
Because of his height of six feet, five inches and his outgoing personality, he was christened "Eleven Yards of Personality".
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 on Citadel Media and TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri, where he met his second wife, Jean Shepard. Ozark Jubilee Souvenir Picture Album (first edition, 1955) After a few years with Columbia Records and RCA Records, he joined the Grand Ole Opry and returned to King; and in 1962 he recorded his biggest hit, "Lonesome 7-7203". It first appeared on the Billboard country chart as a March 2, 1963, release, three days before Hawkins died. 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.
On March 5, Hawkins, Cline and Copas left for Nashville in a Piper 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., who was born one month after his father's death.
Hawkins was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, in Music Row with Copas and other country music stars.
Hawkins is remembered in "Love Never Dies" on Martin 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 a Gibson one time, it was a J-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."
| 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)" | — | — |
| "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 |
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