1963 in country music

Events

March – The month marks a dark time for country music, as it lost no less than five people in a seemingly endless string of tragedies.

* On March 5, three of the genre's top stars - Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas - are killed in a small plane crash near Camden, Tennessee, while on their way to Nashville from Kansas City, Kansas. The pilot, Cline's manager and Copas' son-in-law, Randy Hughes, is also killed.

* En route to Cline's funeral, Jack Anglin - one half of the duo Johnnie and Jack - is killed in a car accident.

* On March 29, Texas Ruby, of the duo Curly Fox and Texas Ruby, is killed in a trailer fire while Fox was performing on the Grand Ole Opry [1].

July – The first issue of the Music City News is published. Its publisher is country music star Faron Young.
September 19 – The Jimmy Dean Show begins a three-year primetime run on ABC. The show — Dean's second go-around on television, following his 1950s series on CBS — is widely hailed by critics for its class treatment of top country stars of the day, many of whom were getting their first true national exposure.

(As certified by Billboard magazine)

January 24 – Keech Rainwater, member of Lonestar.
February 9 – Travis Tritt, country-rock influenced star starting in the early 1990s.
July 31 – Chad Brock, rose to fame in the late 1990s.
August 22 – Mila Mason, enjoyed fame in the late 1990s.
September 6 – Mark Chesnutt, neotraditional country singer of the 1990s.
September 30 – Eddie Montgomery, one half of Montgomery Gentry, older brother of John Michael Montgomery.
November 1 – Big Kenny (born William Kenneth Alphin), one half of Big and Rich and key member of the MuzikMafia.

March 5 - Patsy Cline, 30, premiere female country vocalist who became even more legendary after her death (plane crash).
March 5 - Cowboy Copas, 49, country singer from the 1940s through 1960s, best known for his 1960 hit, "Alabam" (plane crash).
March 5 - Hawkshaw Hawkins, 41, country singer since the 1940s, best known for his pothsumous No. 1 hit, "Lonesome 7-7203" (plane crash).
March 8 - Jack Anglin, 47, country entertainer since the 1930s, late of the duo Johnnie and Jack (with Johnnie Wright) (car accident).
March 29 - Texas Ruby, 52, half of the comedy-old-time country duo Curly Fox and Texas Ruby (mobile home fire).