That’s exactly what I was coming in here to say. The other deaths that struck me were Steve Irwin and John Ritter. They were so young and alive. It just seemed so senseless.
I think my Mom was more affected by JFK Jr than myself.
Me too (apart from the crying thing) but I’ve been known to get something stuck in my eye when hearing Mitch Ben’s song Let’s Have a Minute’s Noise for John (see there it goes again)
The Wikipedia article says
Which I think is a little understated.
And Douglas Adams, though I’d given up on his books by then he was always interesting and fun when he turned up on TV or radio.
Uh…yeah…it was Ruby who shot Oswald, but you got the gist of what I was very ineptly trying to say.
Many of the above mentioned left me sad, but no one so much as Townes Van Zandt. He died right on New Year’s Day, and I remember being with family for holidays, and having to duck out of it all and go off cry. He really was unparalleled as an American songwriter; Dylan only being comparable. Never really got his due to the public ear, but well-worshipped by all in the business. 52 years, a sad time with physical travail, but, the most beautiful songs ever.
I was stationed in Germany in 1990. I was in the field for a few weeks and was able to come in one day and go to Burger King on post. I happened to look at that days issue of Stars and Stripes and saw the headline that Stevie Ray Vaughn died. It was like I lost a friend. I was lucky enough to see him live many times. I once travelled from Maryland to Boston because a friend got tickets to see him. I was rewarded for my effort by getting to meet him and get his autograph.
Michael Hedges death also hit me hard. I had seen him live not too long before. He blew me away. The manner of his death was what effected me the most.
Wayback machine -Phil Ochs committing suicide You don’t know who he was.
JFK. I mean he was important and so vibrant.
Challenger crew. 
Princess Di was just another celebrity to me.
gonzomax- Folk/protest singer from the Nam war era? 
I’m a little shocked at the moment to learn of the death of Morgan Mellish in the Garuda air crash a fortnight ago.
I have to agree with silenus on the Challenger disaster. I was pursuing an aviation career at the time, and that was almost like a physical blow.
Dick Scobee
Greg Jarvis
Crista McAuliffe
Judy Resnik
Ellison Onizuka
Michael Smith
Ron McNair
Freddie Mercury, without a doubt. I’m certain he had so much more to give.
I’m only 40 but my Sister listened to him a lot and I like a lot of Folk Music. I think he died around 73 or 74. Best I can do.
Richard Jeni. Damn, that guy was one of my favorite comedians. One of the few who have brought tears to my eyes from laughing so hard. The news of his death was like a punch in the gut.
Kirsty MacColl. Everything about her death was shocking – that she was so young, that it was such a senseless and avoidable accident, that it happened in front of her kids, that she’d just become involved with someone who made her very happy, and so on. Unlike so many better known celebrities, she didn’t immediately become the subject of 24/7 news coverage when it happened, so those of us who cared found out gradually over the next few days, and had to actively seek out information, which made it seem less real somehow.
John Lennon, of course. Was sixteen, in the midst of a big Beatles kick during high school. Turned on my stereo from my bed when I woke up in the morning and could tell right away something had happened, but it was a few minutes before the reporter got around to repeating the basic facts. I think I stayed in bed for a very long time before eventually dragging myself out and off to school.
The Challenger was stunning; I was a huge astronaut-nut when I was a small child (I hurried home from kindergarten to watch Armstrong and Aldrin land on the moon, and devoured everything space-related I could get my hands for years afterward), and to walk into the campus snack bar minutes after it happened and see them repeating it was, well, shocking. First thought through my head was that it was so close to the Apollo 1 fire anniversary (which I knew off the top of my head partially because of my space fixation as a kid, but moreso because it’s also my birthday).
Dale Earnhardt tops my list. You just figured he was the type of guy that getting killed while racing would never happen. Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison also stunned me when I heard of their passing. Plus the fact they both died in aviation accidents too. Hearing about other drivers such as Neil Bonnett, Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin and Tony Roper also saddened me.
For a sixteen-year-old gay boy, just on my way out of the closet, just came out to my extended family – I’d say Matt Shepard’s murder shook me up quite a bit.
1)Buddy Holly. I was in 11th grade then and Buddy dying was just…wrong!
2)The Challenger explosion.
3)Natalie Wood drowning. She was so,so,so, damn FINE!
If we are counting the Challenger, then that would be my top. It had a huge effect on me (I saw it live, outside in the sky)…but it wasn’t because of “who it was” so I didn’t really think of it in terms of this thread.
To show my age:
Jack Kennedy I remember my Dad putting on his formal stuff to go to the inauguration. He seemed so young.
Fred Astaire It wasn’t a surprise, but it was the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood for me. Man looked darn good in a hat.
Johnny Carson We did not know he was sick. Then we learned how he didn’t want to bother anyone. He taught us how to die.
Martin Luther King Perhaps the most important American of his generation. As now we see his many imperfections, it just makes his public work and persona more remarkable.
Not his death, but the news that he was terminally ill: Warren Zevon. My mom either called or emailed to tell me, and Mr. Rilch was aggravated, because he had wanted to be the one to break it to me. It was odd, in the 18 months or so before his death, hearing him talk so matter-of-factly about how much time he had left, and the people paying tribute. It was almost as if he was a ghost. Then one morning, I pulled up his website, and the homepage had a photo of a pre-teen guy with bright yellow hair, horn rims, and a smirk. Nothing else, except birth and death dates.
John Candy and River Phoenix both got “WHAT?! You’re kidding, right?” reactions. When I heard that Douglas Adams had died, it was a gray, drizzly day, and I made tea in his honor.
Jean Shepherd and Edward Gorey were shocking in that they’d been dead so long before the media reported on it. I assume that was because their familes did not release the information. Shepherd would have been newsworthy on the strength of Christmas Story alone, and Gorey, while less high-profile, was still known to viewers of Mystery! and to goths everywhere.
Speaking of Zevon, Hunter Thompson’s death shocked and angered me. He and Warren were friends, and at the time I thought, “Just glad Warren went first. Losing a friend to cancer has nothing on losing one to suicide.”
Hal Ashby, because I was just starting to get into his movies, and when I heard his name on the news, I first thought he was going back to work. Jim Henson, because I heard of it on such a happy day. But then I said, “He’d want us to have fun!” and we did. Charles Schulz, because of the timing: same day his last strip appeared.
Not shocked, as such, but the one I remember hearing about most vividly was Dermot Morgan from Father Ted.
The reason being that I was in flagrante with my girlfriend at the time, with the radio on, when the news came on. I was like, “Oh, I hadn’t heard that, Father Ted’s dead… um, sorry, where was I?”
Put me right off my stroke, I can tell you. 