In my growing-up days, the Blackwood Brothers, a Southern Gospel group, were by far my favorite singers. On my recent vacation, I had a chance to re-visit a painful memory that happened to them before I can remember.
Through the years I have often heard about the tragedy, a plane crash in Clanton AL that took the lives of two of the group. On vacation this summer we drove through Clanton. I happened to remember that a monument at one time had been placed at the site. With help from Google and a few locals, Ruth and I found it. Isn't it interesting how something like that from the past can suddenly take on deeper meaning?
On June 14, 1954, the Quartet won the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts national competition (similar to today's American Idol). Sixteen days later two of the group were killed in a small plane crash. One of them, R. W. Blackwood, was the singer that young Elvis Presley modeled much of his own performing after. Elvis wept when he heard the news. He auditioned to take R. W.'s place, but was turned down because he was "too animated". How's that for an understatement?
Few people remember or care about the events of June 1954, but for me they still hold value. I love history.
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