Lloyd Copas, also known as “Cowboy Copas” was a famous country music star from the 1940s until his death in the 1960s.
Copas was also born in Adams County, Ohio.
According to local historian Ron Bailey, Copas was born in 1913 in Blue Creek, Ohio to Marion Copas and Lola Mae Ramsey Copas.
The Copas family was known to be a musically inclined family and he began to play the fiddle and guitar and started singing when he was just 10 years old.
“He performed on many radio stations in Ohio while he was a teenager,” Bailey said. “He was soon noticed, and he moved to Nashville in 1940. Three years later, he received national recognition after replacing Eddy Arnold, who started a solo career, as the vocalist in the Pee Wee King Band and started performing on the Grand Ole Opry.”
According to Bailey, Copas also appeared on the television show, Ozark Jubilee while his son “Tis Sweet to be Remembered” climbed to number eight in 1952. He released “The Tennessee Waltz” which became a huge hit for several artists.
“In 1960, his biggest hit came out and made him a national country star. He released the song “Alabam”. ‘’Alabam” proved to be the most successful song of his career, peaking at 63 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 and on the Country Billboard chart, reaching the number one spot for 12 weeks and staying on the chart for 34 weeks,” Bailey said.
Copas was performing at a festival in Kansas City, Kan. on March 5, 1963, alongside Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and others. The three artists boarded a Piper Comanche plane that was piloted by Randy Hughes, who was Cline’s manager and Copas’ son-in-law. The plane was headed to Nashville, Tenn.
The aircraft made a fuel stop in Dyersburg, Tenn. It then took off at 6:07 p.m. Central Time. It flew into severe weather at 6:29 p.m. it crashed in the forest near Camden, Tenn., 90 miles from their destination.
There were no survivors.
In 1996, a marker was placed at the site of the crash.
Copas was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tenn. in Music Row.
