Saturday 5th November 1960

Country and rockabilly artist Johnny Horton, whose number one hit “Battle of New Orleans” topped the US pop charts for six solid weeks in 1959, was killed in an auto accident in Milano, Texas. Ironically, he had just played his last show at the Skyliner in Austin, Texas, where, in 1953, country legend Hank Williams also played his last show, before dying in an automobile as he drove to his next performance. In another twist, Johnny Horton was married to Billie Jean Jones, the widow of Hank Williams. However, the deaths of the two country music pioneers were slightly different, while Horton perished in an auto wreck, Williams, his predecessor in music and love, died silently from a heart attack attributed to drugs, alcohol, and insomnia, in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac.