Aspiring country music singer Johnny Horton was in rural Milano, Texas, when he heard a radio report that his friend Hank Williams had died of heart failure in the back seat of a Cadillac. It was New Year's Day, 1953. Williams had played his last gig at Austin's Skyline Club.

The two men had met on the 'Louisiana Hayride,' the popular radio show that took Williams back after he'd been kicked off the 'Grand Ole Opry.' Horton, then 27, was a former star athlete who dropped out of college to fish in Alaska. As a singer, he got his first break in Pasadena, Calif., where he was given his own local television program, 'The Singing Fisherman,' combining music with demonstrations of his reel casting skills.

Less than a year after Williams' death, Horton married his friend's widow, Billie Jean Jones. Williams and Jones had been married twice onstage in New Orleans, in front of paying audiences, a few months before the singer's death. By some accounts, Hank once told Horton that he'd also marry Billie Jean one day.


Though a popular presence on the 'Hayride,' Horton didn't register his first real hit until 1956, when his 'Honky Tonk Man' (later covered by Dwight Yoakam) made the Top 10 on the country chart. After Horton and his wife burned through her settlement from the Williams estate, income was always a problem. In between paydays, Horton sometimes resorted to playing pinball for money, supposedly making as much as $200 a day.

He had his real breakthrough in 1959, when Horton's version of 'The Battle of New Orleans' became a surprise No. 1 pop hit. It was such a smash that it was once named the top country song in the history of Billboard's Hot 100 chart. The success set off a flurry of recording sessions devoted to so-called "saga songs" based on historical events. Horton had followup hits with 'Johnny Reb' and 'Sink the Bismarck,' and he was asked to record a theme song for the John Wayne movie 'North to Alaska.'

Despite his good fortune, however, Horton was uneasy. After several near-misses on the road, he began having premonitions that he would be killed by a drunk driver. When the country star was booked to play the Skyline Club, he panicked, refusing to go into the barroom. He played the gig and climbed behind the wheel of his Cadillac, with two band members in tow. Driving through Milano -- the same town where Horton heard of Hank's death -- the car was struck by a drunk driver.

The accident left Billie Jean Jones a two-time widow. Killed at the height of his popularity, Horton continued to have hits after his death. His last, in 1963, was called 'All Grown Up.'