Too late for tears, Spade

Country musician Spade Cooley wipes a tear away after hearing his daughter testify at the coroner's inquest into the death of Cooley's wife Ella Mae, April 13, 1961, in Bakersfield. Cooley would be convicted later in 1961 and sentenced to life in prison. On August 5, 1968, the California State Adult Authority voted unanimously to parole him on February 22, 1970. Cooley had served nearly nine years of a life sentence and was in poor health from heart trouble. On November 23, 1969, he received a 72-hour furlough from the prison hospital unit at Vacaville to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County at the Oakland Auditorium (now known as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center) in Oakland. During the intermission, after a standing ovation, Cooley suffered a fatal heart attack backstage.