From the Annals of Only the Good Die Young – Country music star Johnny Horton was killed in a car wreck near Milano in 1960.  Horton had played at the Skyline Club in Austin and was travelling to Shreveport to go duck hunting with an old friend.  Around 2:00 a.m. Horton was driving his Cadillac across a narrow bridge when a truck driven by an intoxicated A&M student lost control hitting both sides of the bridge before colliding head-on with Horton’s car.  Horton was born in California but grew up in East Texas graduating from Gallatin High School and attending Kilgore Junior College.  He worked as a fisherman in the Northwest and Alaska, but embarked on a country music career in 1950.  He found his first real success on the Louisiana Hayride show in 1955 where he was initially billed at the “Singing Fisherman.”  His first No. 1 hit was “When it’s Springtime in Alaska” in 1956.  He went on to record classics such as “North to Alaska”, “The Battle of New Orleans”, “Sink the Bismarck”, “Johnny Reb” and one of my favorites “Whispering Pines.”