Editing Earl Scruggs (section)

==Personal life==
In 1955, Scruggs received word that his mother, Lula, had suffered a stroke and heart attack in North Carolina. The only flight available from Nashville involved such a series of connecting cities that it was not feasible to fly. Scruggs and his wife, with sons Gary and Randy, decided to drive all night from Nashville to see her when they were involved in an automobile accident just east of Knoxville about 3 a.m. October 2.<ref name="mother_dies">{{cite news |title=Opry Star's Mother Dies in North Carolina |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8920695/car_wreck_was_sept_1955/ |newspaper=The Tennessean |date=October 24, 1955 |page=20}}</ref> Their car was hit by a drunk driver, a [[Fort Campbell]] soldier who had pulled out from a side road into their path, then fled the scene after the collision.<ref name="patrolmen">{{cite news |title=Patrolmen Seek GI's Indictment After 2 Injured |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8920776/the_tennessean/ |newspaper=The Tennessean |date=October 4, 1955 |page=10}}</ref> The children were not hurt, but Earl suffered a fractured pelvis and dislocations of both hips, which would plague him for years, and Louise had been thrown into the windshield, receiving multiple lacerations.<ref name="willis" /> They were flown to a Nashville hospital where Scruggs remained hospitalized for about two months. He received thousands of letters from well-wishers.<ref name="willis" /><ref name="gee_wonderful">{{cite news |last1=Reaney |first1=Eldred |title=Gee—It's Wonderful to have Fans |newspaper=The Tennessean |date=October 14, 1955 |page=12}}</ref> He returned to music in January 1956, about four months after the injury, but after working a week or so, one of the hips collapsed, and he returned to the hospital for a metal hip to be implanted.<ref name="vega-banjo" /> Seven years later, the other hip required similar surgery.<ref name="second-hip">{{cite news |last1=Sullivan |first1=Phil |title=The Nashville Sound/Scruggs Recovering |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/112913830/?terms=%22Earl%2BScruggs%22%2B%2B%2Bsurgery |newspaper=The Tennessean |date=August 5, 1962 |page=5F}}</ref> The first metal hip lasted for some 40 years, but eventually failed, requiring a [[total hip replacement]] in October 1996, when he was age 72. While still in the recovery room after this hip operation, Scruggs suffered a heart attack; he was returned to the operating room later the same day for quintuple coronary bypass surgery.<ref name="quintuple">{{cite news |last1=Goldsmith |first1=Thomas |title=Scruggs has surgery |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/113395059/?terms=%22Earl%2BScruggs%22%2B%2B%2Bsurgery |newspaper=The Tennessean |date=October 16, 1996 |page=4B}}</ref> Despite the dire circumstances, he recovered and returned to his musical career.

Scruggs was involved in a solo plane crash in October 1975. He was flying his 1974 Cessna Skyhawk II aircraft home to Nashville around midnight from a performance of the Earl Scruggs Revue in Murray, Kentucky. On his landing approach he was enveloped in dense fog and overshot the runway at [[Cornelia Fort Airpark]] in Nashville and the plane flipped over. The automatic crash alert system in the plane did not function, and Scruggs remained without help for five hours. He crawled about 150 feet from the wreckage with a broken ankle, broken nose, and facial lacerations, afraid that the plane might catch fire. His family was driving home from the same concert and was unaware of the crash, but his niece became worried when he did not arrive. She called police at about 4 a.m., and they went to the airport, where they heard Scruggs's cries for help from a field near the runway.<ref name="jerry-thompson" /> He recovered, but was in a wheelchair for a few weeks, including for the premiere of the Scruggs documentary ''Banjoman'' at the Kennedy Center.<ref name="jerry-thompson" />
[[File:Randy, Earl &amp; Gary Scruggs (3989499458).jpg|thumb|Scruggs performing with his sons Randy and Gary at [[Hardly Strictly Bluegrass]], 2009]]
Steve Scruggs, Earl's youngest son, was the drummer for the Earl Scruggs Revue at one point. He died in September 1992 of a self-inflicted gun shot after killing his wife, according to prosecutor Dent Moriss.<ref name="steve">{{cite news |title=Murder-Suicide by a Star's Son |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/25/us/murder-suicide-by-a-star-s-son.html |work=New York Times Company |agency=Associated Press |page=A16 |access-date=February 1, 2017 |date=September 25, 1992}}</ref> Middle son Randy Scruggs, guitarist and music producer, died after a short illness on April 17, 2018, at the age of 64.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://musicrow.com/2018/04/award-winning-randy-scruggs-passes/ |title=Award Winning Randy Scruggs Passes |last=Oermann |first=Robert |date=2018 |website=MusicRow |access-date=April 18, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/randy-scruggs-award-winning-musician-and-songwriter-dead-at-64-629799/ |title=Randy Scruggs, Award-Winning Musician and Songwriter, Dead at 64 |first=Stephen L. |last=Betts |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=April 18, 2018 |issn=0035-791X |access-date=April 18, 2018}}</ref> Eldest son Gary Scruggs, also a musician, songwriter and music producer, died December 1, 2021, at age 72.<ref name="Thompson">{{cite web |url=https://bluegrasstoday.com/gary-scruggs-passes/ |title=Gary Scruggs passes |last=Thompson |first=Richard |date=December 6, 2021 |website=Bluegrass Today |access-date=August 17, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Judd |first=Cameron |date=December 10, 2021 |title=Gary Scruggs Left Us At 'Speed Of Life' |url= |newspaper=The Greenville Sun |location=Greeneville, Tennessee |access-date=}}</ref>

Every January for many years, Scruggs's birthday was celebrated by a party at his home on Franklin Road in Nashville. After a buffet dinner, guests would gather in the living room for an informal "pickin' party" where some of country music's best known stars would sing and play with no one around but family and close friends.<ref name="cooper" /> The attendees over the years included [[Tom T. Hall]], [[Béla Fleck]], [[Travis Tritt]], [[Vince Gill]], [[Tim O'Brien (musician)|Tim O'Brien]], [[Emmylou Harris]], [[Mac Wiseman]], [[Marty Stuart]], [[Porter Wagoner]], [[Bill Anderson (singer)|Bill Anderson]], [[Jerry Douglas]], [[Josh Graves]] and many others. At Scruggs's 80th birthday party in 2004, country singer [[Porter Wagoner]] said, "Earl is to the five-string banjo what [[Babe Ruth]] was to baseball. He is the best there ever was and the best there ever will be."<ref name="nytimes" />

At age 88, Earl Scruggs died from natural causes on the morning of March 28, 2012, in a Nashville hospital.<ref name="associated" /> His funeral was held on Sunday, April 1, 2012, at the [[Ryman Auditorium]] in Nashville, Tennessee, and was open to the public. He was buried at [[Spring Hill Cemetery (Nashville)|Spring Hill Cemetery]] in a private service.