Obituary:

                      October 13, 1997
 
                     SALINAS, California (CNN) --
                      Singer and songwriter John
                      Denver, whose '70 hits such as
                      "Rocky Mountain High" and
                      "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
                      gained him worldwide fame, was
                      killed Sunday when his small
                      aircraft plunged into Monterey
                      Bay, officials said Monday. He
                      was 53.

                      His remains were positively identified by the Monterey County
                      Coroner's Office through fingerprints obtained from the state of
                      Colorado, Monterey County Sheriff Norman Hicks said. The
                      National Transportation Safety Board was pursuing details on the
                      cause of the crash itself, while the sheriff's coroners will be
                      investigating the circumstances surrounding the cause of death, he
                      said.

                      "We share a sense of shock and loss to our community, our nation
                      and the world, and we extend our heartfelt sympathy to the many
                      friends, the family, and the many admirers of John Denver," Hicks
                      said at a Monday news conference.

                      Denver was piloting the two-seat light plane along the California
                      coast when the engine failed shortly after 5 p.m., plunging him into
                      ocean waters just past Monterey Bay.

                                                  He was believed to be the
                                                  sole person on board the
                                                  single-engine fiberglass plane,
                                                  which he owned. It was
                                                  considered an experimental
                                                  aircraft, said Pacific Grove
                                                  police Lt. Carl Miller.

                                                  It took officials several hours
                                                  to positively identify Denver's
                                                  remains.

                                                  Denver owned a home on
                                                  Monterey Peninsula, a coastal
                                                  area south of San Francisco,
                                                 and visited the area often, Hicks said.

                      Lt. Dave Allard, spokesman for the Monterey County sheriff's
                      department, said an autopsy would be conducted Monday.
                      Toxicology tests, standard for fatal crashes, also will be
                      conducted, he said.

                      Teri Martell, whose sister Annie was the singer's first wife, had told
                      CNN early Monday that Denver "was a very experienced pilot."
                      Martell said Annie was told he was practicing taking off and
                      landing when the accident occurred.

                      Denver was in a previous plane accident in April 1989. He walked
                      away uninjured after the 1931 biplane he was piloting spun around
                      while taxiing at an airport in northern Arizona.

                      In 1995, a flight instructor sued Denver for a runway run-in at
                      Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming. The instructor alleged the
                      singer was piloting his Christen Eagle in 1994 when the airplane
                      taxied into the flight instructor's Cessna.

                      Denver's career

                      Denver had 14 gold and eight platinum albums in the United
                      States, and was popular around the world. According to Sony
                      Records, Denver's current label, he is one of the five top-selling
                      artists in the history of the music industry.

                      In addition to music and television awards, Denver also received
                      recognition from several environmental groups for his advocacy of
                      his beloved Rocky Mountains. Then-Colorado Gov. John
                      Vanderhoof named Denver the state's Poet Laureate in 1974.
                      Denver lived in Aspen since the early 1970s.

                      Born Henry John Deutschendorf, Denver traveled throughout his
                      childhood. After studying architecture at Texas Tech, he went west
                      in 1965 to pursue a career in folk music.

                      His first taste of musical success was in
                      1969, when the folk trio Peter, Paul and
                      Mary recorded Denver's "Leavin' on a
                      Jet Plane," which went on to become
                      the Number 1 song in the country.
                      Denver's voice first hit the charts in
                      1971, when "Take me Home, Country
                      Roads" went to Number 2.

                      "Country Roads" was Denver's first million-seller. A string of hits
                      followed in the 1970s, including "Rocky Mountain High," "Thank
                      God I'm a Country Boy" and "Annie's Song," an ode to his wife.
                      They separated in 1983 and later divorced.

                      In 1977, Denver made his big-screen acting debut in "Oh, God,"
                      opposite George Burns. He made occasional acting appearances
                      over the years, but was better known for his television specials.
                      Denver appeared in several Christmas shows, including two with
                      Jim Henson's Muppets.

                      In 1984 and '85, Denver was one of the first Western artists to
                      tour the Soviet Union following a resumption of cultural exchanges
                      with the United States. He was also one of the first Western artists
                      to go on a multi-city tour of China, in 1992.

                      Standup comics and newspaper
                      cartoonists leapt on a 1988
                      "Aviation Week & Space
                      Technology" report that Denver
                      asked Soviet space officials to
                      launch him to the Mir space station.
                      The cash-strapped Soviets were
                      reportedly considering the idea, with
                      a price of $10 million.

                      Denver's legal troubles have made
                      headlines in recent years. Charged
                      with driving under the influence in 1993, Denver pleaded guilty to
                      the lesser charge of driving while impaired.

                      He was again charged with DUI when his Porsche ran off the road
                      in his Aspen, Colorado, neighborhood in 1994. The trial for that
                      charge ended with a hung jury in July 1997. Denver's defense
                      argued that the singer's thyroid condition made alcohol tests
                      unreliable.

                      In August 1997, "The Best of John Denver Live" reached Number
                      47 on the country album charts. It was Denver's first chart
                      appearance since 1988.

Report on Crash:

                  Web posted on: Tuesday, June 23, 1998

                  MONTEREY, California
                  (CNN) -- The plane crash that killed singer-songwriter John Denver could
                  have been caused by several factors related to the amount of fuel in the
                  plane when it went down in the Pacific Ocean during a practice flight off the
                  California coast, according to a report by the National Transportation Safety
                  Board released Monday.

                  While drawing no firm conclusions, the NTSB report stated that Denver's
                  homemade Long E-Z plane was almost certainly low on fuel when --
                  according to witnesses -- it sputtered, nosedived and crashed 150 yards
                  from shore. The report also said that the plane's fuel selector handle -- which
                  switches the fuel flow to a backup tank -- was in a hard-to-reach location,
                  making it difficult for the pilot to reach it and make a switch if the primary
                  tank ran dry.

                  Denver, known for such popular 1970s hits as "Rocky Mountain High,"
                  "Take Me Home, Country Roads," and "Sunshine On My Shoulders," died
                  in the October 12 crash. A five-member NTSB board will study the report
                  to determine a probable cause for the accident.

                                             Low on fuel

                                             The report says fueling records show
                                             that the plane was most likely low on fuel
                                             when Denver took off from the
                                             Monterey Peninsula Airport in the late
                                             afternoon to practice takeoffs and
                                             landings.

                                             Denver bought the plane the day before
                  the crash. After he bought the plane, but prior to the crash, the plane had
                  been flown 100 miles from Santa Maria to Monterey, and then flown on the
                  day of the crash. Investigators said that activity would have used 12 to 17
                  gallons of gas, but the last known quantity on board was 15 gallons before
                  the test flight. There was no record of Denver refueling the plane.

                  Furthermore, it would have been difficult for Denver to tell if he was out of
                  gas because the fuel gauges in the Long E-Z are visible only from the seat
                  behind the pilot's. A mechanic at the Monterey airport did give Denver a
                  mirror so he could try to see the gauges from the pilot's seat. The mirror was
                  recovered in the wreckage.

                                   Flaw in design?
                  But even if Denver had known that his fuel levels were running low in one
                  tank, it would have been awkward for him to switch to the other tank. Plans
                  for the Long E-Z call for the fuel selector handle to be located between the
                  pilot's legs. But in this case, the plane's builder, Adrian Davis Jr., had
                  installed the tank switch behind the pilot's left shoulder because, he said, he
                  did not want fuel in the cockpit.

                  As constructed, Denver, an experienced pilot, would have had to remove his
                  safety belts, take his right hand off the control stick and turn in his seat in
                  order to switch from one fuel tank to another. That maneuver, as tested by
                  NTSB officials, takes six to eight seconds.

                  "Two pilots shared experiences of having inadvertently run a fuel tank dry
                  with near catastrophic consequences because of the selector and (fuel)
                  gauge locations," the report said.

                                 No medical certificate

                  On the day of the crash, Denver and a maintenance technician talked about
                  the inaccessibility of the handle. They tried to install a pair of vice grips to
                  make the handle longer and easier to reach, but the effort failed.

                  The report also confirmed that Denver lacked an aviation medical certificate
                  -- a requirement for a valid pilot's license -- at the time of the crash.

                  The Federal Aviation Administration had disqualified Denver for the
                  certificate in March 1997, after learning that he had violated a previous FAA
                  order to abstain from drinking. An autopsy showed no signs of alcohol or
                  drugs at the time of the crash.

                  Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Biography:  Music Central 96

(b. Henry John Deutschendorf Jnr., 31 December 1943, Roswell, New Mexico).

One of America's most popular performers during the '70s, Denver's rise to fame began
when he was ‘discovered’ in a Los Angeles night club. He initially joined the Back Porch
Majority, a nursery group for the renowned New Christy Minstrels but, tiring of his role
there, left for the Chad Mitchell Trio where he forged a reputation as a talented songwriter.

With the departure of the last original member, the Mitchell Trio became known as Denver,
Boise and Johnson, but their brief life-span ended when John embarked on a solo career in
1969. One of his compositions, Leaving On A Jet Plane, provided an international hit for
Peter, Paul And Mary, and this evocative song was the highlight of Denver's debut album,
RHYMES AND REASONS. Subsequent releases, TAKE ME TO TOMORROW and
WHOSE GARDEN WAS THIS, garnered some attention, but it was not until the release
of POEMS, PRAYERS AND PROMISES that the singer enjoyed popular acclaim when
one of its tracks, Take Me Home, Country Roads, broached the US Top 3 and became a
UK Top 20 hit for Olivia Newton-John in 1973. The song's undemanding homeliness
established a light, almost naive style, consolidated on the albums AERIE and ROCKY
MOUNTAIN HIGH. I'd Rather Be A Cowboy (1973) and Sunshine On My Shoulders
(1974) were both gold singles, while a third million-seller, Annie's Song, secured Denver's
international status when it topped the UK charts that same year and subsequently became
an MOR standard, as well as earning the classical flautist James Galway a UK number 3 hit in
1978. Further US chart success came in 1975 with two number 1 hits, Thank God I'm A
Country Boy and I'm Sorry. Denver's status as an all-round entertainer was enhanced by
many television spectaculars, including ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS, and further
gold-record awards for AN EVENING WITH JOHN DENVER and WINDSONG, ensuring
that 1975 was the artist's most successful year to date.

He continued to enjoy a high profile throughout the rest of the decade and forged a concurrent
acting career with his role in the film comedy OH, GOD with George Burns. In 1981 his
songwriting talent attracted the attention of yet another classically trained artist, when opera
singer Placido Domingo duetted with Denver on Perhaps Love. However, although Denver
became an unofficial musical ambassador with tours to Russia and China, his recording
became less prolific as increasingly he devoted time to charitable work and ecological interests.
Despite the attacks by music critics, who have deemed his work as bland and saccharine,
Denver's cute, simplistic approach has nonetheless achieved a mass popularity which is the
envy of many artists.

Links:

John Denver Memorial Page
Denver Tribute Page