According to a 1982 interview, was outside in his back yard on the
afternoon of July 31, 1964, during a severe thunderstorm, when he heard
a low flying plane go directly overhead. He said, "I thought to myself,
either he's a hell of a pilot or he's in trouble, because you just
wouldn't be intentionally flying that low in that kind of a storm. A
few seconds later, I heard it crash". Shortly afterward, he found out
that the pilot of the plane was his friend and fellow Country Music
star
Jim Reeves. Reeves and his manager/piano player Dean Manuel were both
killed in the crash, although their bodies and the wreckage weren't
found until two days later, August 2.
