A long-running rumor held the song was based on an auto accident that killed 16-year-old Jeanette Clark, who was on a date with J.L. Hancock, also 16, in Barnesville, Georgia, on December 22, 1962. It was the Saturday before Christmas; the pair were with a group of friends, riding in a 1954 Chevrolet, driven by Hancock, in traffic. While traveling on U.S. Route 341, their car hit a tractor trailer carrying a load of logs in rural Barnesville, Georgia; Clark, Hancock and Wayne Cooper were killed. Two other teens in the car were seriously injured, but survived. However, this tragedy could not be the source of the song, as it had been recorded in the summer of 1961, more than a year earlier. Wayne Cochran lived on Georgia State Route 19/41, when he wrote "Last Kiss", only 15 miles away from the crash site, and was reportedly inspired to write the song after seeing many accidents on the highway. He re-recorded "Last Kiss", for release on King Records, in 1962, dedicating it to Clark, a fact which probably explains association of the song with the tragic crash.