SEPTEMBER 14, 1968 – Roy Orbison’s family home at Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tennessee, burned to the ground while Orbison was touring in England and his two sons, Roy Jr. (b. 1958) and Anthony (b. 1962), died in the fire.
Orbison was no stranger to tragedy. His first wife Claudette Frady Orbison (September 5, 1941 – June 6, 1966) was killed when a truck pulled out of a side road and collided with the motorbikes that she and her husband were riding on in Gallatin, Tennessee, and she died in his arms an hour later, at just 24 years old. Roy was devastated to lose his beautiful wife and found it difficult to write any more songs, but he kept touring. The tragic lyrics and haunting melody of “Too Soon To Know,” which reached #3 in the British charts just two months later, still tug at the heartstrings five decades on.
