John Denver (1943-1997), born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., was an American singer-songwriter, actor, activist, poet, photographer and avid pilot. One of the most popular acoustic artists of the 1970s, Denver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed. He was named Poet Laureate of Colorado in 1977. Denver became outspoken in politics in the mid-1970s. In 1976, he campaigned for Jimmy Carter, who became a close friend and ally. Denver was a supporter of the Democratic Party and of a number of charitable causes for the environmental movement, the homeless, the poor, the hungry, and the African AIDS crisis. He founded the charitable Windstar Foundation in 1976, to promote sustainable living.
On October 12, 1997, Denver was killed at the age of 53 when his Experimental Rutan Long-EZ plane, crashed into the Pacific Ocean near Pacific Grove, CA. This particular aircraft had an unusual reconfiguration of the fuel selector valve handle, which had been moved from the instrument panel to behind the left shoulder of the pilot. Apparently it also had a sticky O-ring and was hard to move. Both factors may have led to Denver pushing the right rudder pedal when he turned to switch fuel tanks by moving the handle. The aircraft then entered an uncontrolled turning descent. Flying at an estimated altitude of 500 feet, he did not have time to recover. As the wreck badly disfigured Denver's head and body, making identification by dental records impossible, records of his fingerprints taken from his arrests for intoxicated driving were used to confirm that the fallen pilot was indeed the singer. Upon announcement of Denver's death, Colorado governor Roy Romer ordered all state flags to be lowered to half staff in his honor. Denver was cremated with the 1910 Gibson guitar given to him by his grandmother which had inspired much of his career.
www.johndenver.com
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