Music’s Aviation Tragedies: Walter Hyatt

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Ooh, the sun is out and it’s…well, not cold. For early February, I’ll take it! Today on the list of musicians who perished in aviation disasters we go back to someone most of you have never heard of and a commercial airline. Here’s today’s singer. Walter Hyatt It was like losing a member of the family. After all, we first knew him as “Uncle Walt.” (Larry Monroe, Hyatt’s Austin Chronicle obituary, 1996) There are a lot of people in the world of music who made a world of impact without “the masses” ever knowing a thing about them. Walter Hyatt was one of those people. Austin, Texas has always been a place for exciting music. Remember, that’s where Austin City Limits began on PBS in 1975. For a city that’s both the capital of Texas and home to a major university, Austin’s heart and soul is music. And that’s where Walter Hyatt landed from Spartanburg, South Carolina, forming Uncle Walt’s Band (named after the Grateful Dead song “Uncle John’s Band”). The bass player in the band was a young David Ball, who’d later have a #1 country hit with “Riding With Private Malone.” While not “commercially” successful, they were very impactful on their fellow musicians in the Austin music scene. The influence included Junior Brown (when I met him I had to ask him about his performance of “Diggeroo” on the Walter Hyatt tribute Austin City Limits show, and he said, “It was such a fun song, but I don’t think I got half the lyrics right” ), Jerry Jeff Walker, and Lyle Lovett, the latter of which produced Hyatt’s first solo album. On May 11, 1996, Hyatt boarded ValueJet flight 592 in Miami to fly to a connecting flight in Atlanta, which would take him to Virginia, where his daughter was graduating from college. After a delay of an hour the plane took off from Miami. In five minutes the pilots would report a fire in the cargo hold and request directions to the nearest airport. Then it crashed into a swampy, marshy area of the Everglades. Not only was everyone on board killed, but the severity of the crash, coupled with the dangerous location (in a wildlife area with lots of gators), meant that a number of bodies were never recovered. Hyatt’s was one of the bodies never found. Hyatt’s name might not be well known in popular music circles, but he was a major player in the Austin music scene over three decades, and is still remembered today. Walter Hyatt October 25, 1949 - May 11, 1996 (age 46) Place of crash: Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area, Miami-Dade County, Florida Commercial airline: ValueJet flight 592, intended route Miami - Atlanta Here’s Walter on the old TNN show Texas Connection (Linda? No!):