Many of us grow up listening to country music, which is also known as country and western, and hillbilly music. It is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as American folk music and blues.
James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964) was a country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville sound. Known as "Gentleman Jim", his songs continued to chart for years after his death. Reeves died in the crash of his private airplane.
On Friday, July 31, 1964, Reeves and his business partner and manager Dean Manuel left Batesville, AR, en route to Nashville in a single-engine Beechcraft Debonair aircraft. Reeves ran into the heavy rain at 4:51 p.m. and crashed only a minute later, at 4:52 p.m. When the wreckage was found some 42 hours later, it was disclose to I-65. He is buried on a one-acre, tree-ringed plot of land just off Highway 79 in his birthplace of Carthage, TX. A life-size marble statue of Reeves in his performance tuxedo stands atop a stylized pillar, holding his guitar.