John Denver (Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.)
(December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997)
To those who bought records like “Rocky Mountain High”
and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by the millions in
the 1970s, John Denver was much more than just a great
songwriter and performer.
With his oversized glasses, bowl haircut and down vest,
he was an unlikely fashion icon, and with his vocal
environmentalism, he was the living embodiment of an
outdoorsy lifestyle that many 20-something baby boomers
would adopt as their own during the “Me” decade.
There never was and there probably never will be a star
quite like John Denver, who died on October 12, 1997
when his experimental amateur aircraft (below) crashed
into Monterey Bay on the California coast.
Quote from the NTSB Report: "The National Transportation Safety
Board determined the probable cause of the accident was the
pilot’s diversion of attention from the operation of the airplane
and his inadvertent application of right rudder that resulted in
the loss of airplane control while attempting to manipulate the
fuel selector handle.
