On March 5, Hawkins, Cline and Copas left for Nashville in a Piper Comanche piloted by Randy Hughes, Cline's manager (and Copas' 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 I. Hawk Jr. was born one month after his father's death.