Patsy Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley; September 8, 1932 â€" March 5, 1963) was an American country music singer and part of the Nashville sound during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She successfully "crossed over" to pop music and was one of the most influential, successful, and acclaimed vocalists of the 20th century. She died at age 30 in the crash of a private airplane.
Cline was known for her rich tone, emotionally expressive and bold contralto voice, and her role as a country music pioneer. She helped to pave the way for women as headline performers in the genre, along with Kitty Wells. She overcame poverty, a devastating automobile accident, and significant professional obstacles, and she has been cited as an inspiration by Reba McEntire, LeAnn Rimes, and other singers in diverse styles. Books, movies, documentaries, and stage plays document her life and career.
Her hits began in 1957 with Donn Hecht's and Alan Block's "Walkin' After Midnight," Hank Cochran's and Harlan Howard's "I Fall to Pieces," Hank Cochran's "She's Got You," and Willie Nelson's "Crazy," and ended in 1963 with Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams." Millions of her records have sold since her death. She won awards and accolades, causing many to view her as an icon at the level of Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley. She became the first female solo artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, ten years after her death. In 1999, she was voted number 11 on VH1's special The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll. In 2002, she was voted Number One on Country Music Television's The 40 Greatest Women of Country Music, and she was ranked 46th in the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Her 1973 Country Music Hall of Fame plaque reads: "Her heritage of timeless recordings is testimony to her artistic capacity."
Early years
Unknown Surprising Facts About Patsy Cline || Pastimers - Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley on September 8, 1932, in Winchester, Virginia. Her father Samuel was a blacksmith. Her mother Hilda was only ...
Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley on September 8, 1932 in Winchester, Virginia, in the city's Memorial Hospital. She was the eldest child of seamstress Hilda Virginia (née Patterson, 1916â€"1998) and blacksmith Samuel Lawrence Hensley (1889â€"1956). She had a brother Samuel Jr. (1939â€"2004) and a sister Sylvia. The family moved often before finally settling in Winchester, Virginia when Patsy was 16. Sam Hensley deserted his family in 1947, but the children's home was reportedly happy nonetheless.
When Patsy was 13, she was hospitalized with a throat infection and rheumatic fever. She later said, "The fever affected my throat and when I recovered I had this booming voice like Kate Smith."
Cline enrolled at John Handley High School but never attended classes. To help her mother support their family, she worked as a soda jerk at Gaunt's Drug Store and a waitress at the Triangle Diner. She watched performers through the window at the local radio station, and she asked WINC (AM) disc jockey Jimmy McCoy if she could sing on his show. Her performance in 1947 was well received and she was asked back. This led to appearances at local nightclubs wearing fringed Western outfits that her mother made from Patsy's designs.
Cline performed in variety and talent shows in the Winchester and Tri-State areas, and she gained a large following through the shows and local radio appearances. Jimmy Dean was already a country star in 1954, and she became a regular with him on Connie B. Gay's Town and Country Jamboree radio show on WAVA (AM) in Arlington County, Virginia.
Personal life
Virginia Hensley married contractor Gerald Edward Cline (1925â€"1994) on March 7, 1953. The marriage ended in divorce on July 4, 1957, and there were no children from the union. The failure of their marriage was blamed on the conflict between Patsy's desire to sing professionally and Gerald's wish that she remain at home. She retained the last name professionally for the rest of her life.
Cline married Linotype operator Charles Allen "Charlie" Dick (May 24, 1934 â€" November 8, 2015) on September 15, 1957. She regarded him as "the love of her life". They had two children together: Julia Simadore (born 1958) and Allen Randolph (born 1961). Charlie was buried next to Patsy in Shenandoah Memorial Park in her hometown of Winchester, Virginia.
Recording career
Four Star Records
Bill Peer, her second manager, gave her the name Patsy, from her middle name, Patterson. (Bill Peer, who had a country music band in Brunswick, MD, also had an infant daughter named Patsy). In 1955 he gained a contract for her at Four Star Records, the label he was then affiliated with. Four Star was under contract to the Coral subsidiary of Decca Records. Patsy signed with Decca at her first opportunity three years later.
Her first contract allowed her to record compositions only by Four Star writers, which Cline found limiting. Later, she expressed regret over signing with the label, but thinking that nobody else would have her, she took the deal. Her first record for Four Star was "A Church, A Courtroom & Then Good-Bye," which attracted little attention, although it led to appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. As these performances were not "records" per se, they were not governed by her contract, and she could sing what she wanted, within reason. This somewhat eased her "stifled" feeling.
Between 1955 and 1957, Cline recorded honky tonk material, with songs like "Fingerprints," "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down," "Don't Ever Leave Me Again," and "A Stranger In My Arms." Cline co-wrote the last two. None of these songs gained notable success. She experimented with rockabilly.
According to Decca Records producer Owen Bradley, the Four Star compositions only hinted at Patsy's potential. Bradley thought that her voice was best-suited for pop music, but Cline sided with Peer and the other Four Star producers, insisting that she could only record country songs, as her contract also stated. Every time Bradley tried to get her to sing the torch songs that would become her signature, she would panic, missing her familiar country fiddle and steel guitar. She often rebelled, only wishing to sing country and yodel. She recorded 51 songs with Four Star.
Arthur Godfrey and "Walkin' After Midnight"
On July 1, 1955 Cline made her network television debut on the short-lived television version of the Grand Ole Opry on ABC-TV. This was followed by an appearance on the network's Ozark Jubilee later that month, before returning to the show in April.
In 1956, at an Armory dance where she was the vocalist, Cline met Winchester native Charlie Dick, a linotype operator and good-looking ladies man who frequented the local club circuit Cline played on weekends, in Berryville, VA, eight miles from Winchester. His raw charm and persistence resulted in an affair â€" though Patsy was still married to her first husband and involved in an on again/off again relationship with manager Bill Peer.
Later that year, while looking for material for her first album, Patsy Cline: "Walkin' After Midnight," appeared, written by Donn Hecht and Alan Block. Cline initially did not like the song because it was, according to her, "just a little old pop song." However, the song's writers and record label insisted that she record it.
Late in 1956, she auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts in New York City, and was accepted to sing on the CBS-TV show on January 21, 1957. Godfrey's "discovery" of Cline was typical. Her scout (actually her mother) presented Patsy, who initially was supposed to sing "A Poor Man's Roses (Or a Rich Man's Gold)." However, the show's producers insisted she sing "Walkin' After Midnight" instead, since it was set to be released shortly thereafter by Decca Records. Though the song was heralded as a country song, and recorded in Nashville, Godfrey's staff insisted that Cline appear in a cocktail dress rather than in one of her mother's hand-crafted cowgirl outfits.
The audience's enthusiastic ovations pushed the applause meter to its apex, winning the competition for her. After the Godfrey show, listeners began calling their local radio stations to request the song, so she released it as a single. Although Cline had been performing for almost a decade and had appeared on national TV three times, it took Godfrey to make her a star. For a couple of weeks thereafter, Cline appeared regularly on Godfrey's radio program. Disagreements over creative control caused Godfrey to fire her.
"Walkin' After Midnight" reached No. 2 on the country chart and No. 12 on the pop chart, making Cline one of the first country singers to have a crossover pop hit. The single drove her success for the next year or so. She stayed visible by making personal appearances and performing regularly on Godfrey's show, as well as performing for several years on Ozark Jubilee (later Jubilee USA). She had no other hits with Four Star.
In 1957, Cline recorded "A Stranger in My Arms" and "Don't Ever Leave Me Again," written by friends Lillian Clarborne and James Crawford, the only known releases on which Cline contributed music (she could play piano by ear) under her birth name Virginia Hensley. However, Four-Star Records lists Cline as a contributor to Barbara Vaughn's 1956 tune "Wicked Love," leading to speculation that she may have cut a demo of the song. If so, it has never surfaced. [10, page 81, Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline [1993].
After the birth of their daughter, Julie, in 1958, Cline and her husband moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
1961 comeback â€" "I Fall to Pieces"
In 1959 Cline met Randy Hughes, a session guitarist and promotion man. Hughes became her manager and helped her change labels. When her Four Star contract expired in 1960, she signed with Decca Records-Nashville, directly under Owen Bradley, a legendary producer of female country singers. He was responsible for much of Cline's success and positively influenced the careers of both Brenda Lee and Loretta Lynn.
Even though she was still scared of the lush Nashville sound arrangements, Bradley considered Cline's voice best-suited for country pop-crossover songs. His direction and arrangements helped smooth her voice into the silky, torch-song style for which she won fame.
Cline's first release for Decca was the country pop ballad "I Fall to Pieces" (1961), written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. The song was promoted and won success on both country and pop stations. On the country charts, it slowly climbed to the top, garnering her first Number One ranking. In a major feat for country singers at the time, the song also hit No. 12 on the pop and No. 6 on the adult contemporary charts, making her a household name and demonstrating that women could achieve as much crossover success as men.
Grand Ole Opry and Nashville scene
On January 9, 1960, Cline realized a lifelong dream when the Grand Ole Opry accepted her request to join the cast, making her the only person to achieve membership in such a fashion. Notably, she wore slacks rather than a dress when she was accepted into the Grand Ole Opry, which was rather shocking at the time. She became one of the Opry's biggest stars.
Even before that time, believing that there was "room enough for everybody" and confident of her abilities and appeal, Cline befriended and encouraged women starting out in the country music field at that time, including Loretta Lynn, Dottie West, Jan Howard, 16-year-old Brenda Lee and a 13-year-old steel-guitar player named Barbara Mandrell (with whom Cline once toured). All cited her as a major influence.
According to both Lynn and West, Cline always gave of herself to friends, buying them groceries and furniture and even hiring them as wardrobe assistants. On occasion, she paid their rent so they could stay in Nashville and continue pursuing their dreams. Honky-tonk pianist and Opry star Del Wood said, "Even when she didn't have it, she'd spend it â€" and not always on herself. She'd give anyone the skirt off her backside if they needed it."
The Cline
She cultivated a brash and gruff exterior as "one of the boys," befriending male artists as well. Among them were Roger Miller, Hank Cochran, Faron Young, Ferlin Husky, Harlan Howard and Carl Perkins, with all of whom she socialized at the famed Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, next door to the Opry. In the 1986 documentary The Real Patsy Cline, singer George Riddle said of her, "It wasn't unusual for her to sit down and have a beer and tell a joke, and she'd never be offended at the guys' jokes either, because most of the time she'd tell a joke dirtier than you! Patsy was full of life."
Cline used the term of endearment "Hoss" to her friends, both male and female, and called herself "The Cline." She met Elvis Presley in 1962 at a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and they exchanged phone numbers. Having seen him perform during a rare Grand Ole Opry appearance, she admired his music, called him The Big Hoss, and often recorded with his backup group, The Jordanaires.
By this time, Cline controlled her own career, making it clear to all involved that she could stand up to any man, verbally and professionally, and was ready to challenge them if they interfered with her. At a time when concert promoters often cheated stars by promising to pay them after the show but skipping out with the money before the concert ended, Cline demanded her money before she took the stage: Her "No dough, no show" became the rule. According to friend Roy Drusky in The Real Patsy Cline: "Before one concert, we hadn't been paid. And we were talking about who was going to tell the audience that we couldn't perform without pay. Patsy said, 'I'll tell 'em!' And she did!" Dottie West recalled with amazement some 25 years later that "It was common knowledge around town that you didn't mess with 'The Cline!'"
Car crash
On June 14, 1961, she and her brother Sam were involved in a head-on collision on Old Hickory Boulevard in Nashville. The impact threw Cline into the windshield, nearly killing her. Upon arriving at the scene, Dottie West picked glass from Cline's hair, and went with her in the ambulance.
When help arrived, Cline insisted that the other car's driver be treated first. She later said she saw the female driver of the other car die before her eyes. West witnessed this too, and the impression left upon her may have contributed to an unfortunate decision she made some three decades later. In 1991, when West was seriously injured in a car accident, she insisted that her driver be treated first. West died from her injuries, possibly because she had declined to be treated immediately. Cline spent a month in the hospital, suffering from a jagged cut across her forehead that required stitches, a broken wrist, and a dislocated hip. Her friend Billy Walker, who died in a vehicle accident in 2006, said Cline rededicated her life to Christ while in the hospital, where she received thousands of cards and flowers from fans. When she was released, her forehead was visibly scarred. (For the rest of her career, she wore wigs and makeup to hide the scars, along with headbands to relieve the pressure that caused headaches.) Six weeks later, she returned to the road on crutches with a new appreciation for life.
A series of recordings titled Patsy Cline: Live at the Cimarron Ballroom, from her first concert after the crash, were released in 1997 and feature Cline interacting with the audience, reviewing her live performances. Recorded in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as a sound check, these archives were found in the attic by a later owner of one of Cline's residences and were given to the family.
"Crazy"
Unable to capitalize upon the success of "I Fall to Pieces" due to her hospital stay, Cline sought another recording to re-establish herself. When introduced to "Crazy", a song written by Willie Nelson, Cline expressed dislike because of the narrative on Nelson's demo recording. On Thursday, August 17, 1961, with Cline on crutches, the session was the rare time that Cline couldn't complete a recording in one take.
Working in a Quonset hut (where the original Bradley's Barn Studio was located before moving to Opryland), she tried to follow Nelson's idiosyncratic narrative style. Cline claimed this was too difficult. Her ribs, injured in the crash, were making it hard for her to reach the high notes. In an era when it was standard to record four songs in a three-hour run, those in the "Crazy" session spent four hours on a single song. It was eventually decided that Cline would return the following Monday and simply sing the lyrics, overdubbing her vocals on the best instrumental track. After resting she was able to reach the high notes, and recorded her part in a single take.
The popular appeal of the final version was attributed to Bradley's management of Cline's fear, because he convinced her to imbue the recording with her unique persona. The song became an intimate representation of Cline and is seen as completely unlike Nelson's version. Now a classic, "Crazy" ultimately became Cline's signature song.
By late 1961, "Crazy" was a crossover success, straddling the country and pop genres, and reached the Top 10 on the charts. It became Cline's biggest pop hit. The song subsequently reached No. 9 on the US Hot 100 and No. 2 on both the Hot Country Songs and the Adult Contemporary lists. An album released in November 1961, entitled Patsy Cline Showcase, featured both of Cline's hits of that year. Loretta Lynn later reported on her album, I Remember Patsy, that on the night Cline premiered "Crazy" at the Grand Ole Opry, she received three standing ovations.
Sentimentally Yours
In the fall of 1961, Cline was back in the studio to record an upcoming album for release in early 1962. One of the first songs was "She's Got You", written by Hank Cochran. Cochran pitched the song over the phone to Cline and she fell in love with it at once. It was one of the few songs she enjoyed recording. Released as a single in January 1962, it soon crossed over, reaching No. 14 on the pop charts, No. 3 on the adult contemporary charts (originally called "Easy Listening"), and as her second and final chart-topper, No. 1 on the country chart. She would never again enter the pop charts during her lifetime.
"She's Got You" was also Cline's first entry in the United Kingdom singles chart, reaching No. 43. The cover by Alma Cogan, one of Britain's most popular female artists of the 1950s, performed notably as well. (The biggest Hit Parade UK record sales entry before her death was her version of the standard Heartaches, reaching the Top 30 in late 1962.)
Following the success of "She's Got You", Cline released a string of smaller country hits, including the Top 10 "When I Get Thru' With You", "Imagine That", "So Wrong", and "Heartaches". These were not big crossover hits, but still reached the Top 20 and Top 10.
In 1962, Cline appeared on Dick Clark's American Bandstand and released her third album, Sentimentally Yours in August. When asked in a WSM-AM interview about her vocal stylings, she said, "Oh, I just sing like I hurt inside".
Life on the road was beginning to wear on Cline. She longed to spend more time with her children, Julie and Randy, and was starting to talk about a hiatus. But her manager insisted that they had to strike while the iron was hot.
At the top
Cline was the first female country music star to headline her own show and receive billing above the male stars with whom she toured.
While bands typically backed up the female singer, Cline led the band throughout the concerts instead. She was so respected by men in the industry that rather than introducing her to audiences as "Pretty Miss Patsy Cline", as her female contemporaries often were, she was given a more stately introductionâ€"such as that given by Johnny Cash on their 1962 tour: "Ladies and Gentlemen, The One and Only â€" Patsy Cline". As an artist, she held her fans in extremely high regard, many of them becoming friends, staying for hours after concerts to chat and sign autographs.
Cline was the first woman in country music to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall, sharing the bill with fellow Opry members Minnie Pearl, Jim Reeves, Faron Young, Bill Monroe, and Grandpa Jones. The performance garnered sharp disapproval from gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, at whom Cline eloquently fired back. In Los Angeles, she headlined the Hollywood Bowl with Cash. And in December 1962, she became the first woman in country music to headline her own show in Las Vegas, at the downtown Mint Casino.
This success enabled Cline to buy her dream home in the Nashville suburb of Goodlettsville, decorating it in her own style. It featured gold dust sprinkled in the bathroom tiles and a music room with the finest sound equipment. In The Real Patsy Cline, Lynn remembered: "She called me into the front yard and said, 'Isn't this pretty? Now I'll never be happy until I have my Mama one just like it.'" Cline called it "the house that Vegas built", since the money from the Mint covered its cost. After her death, Cline's home was sold to singer Wilma Burgess.
With the new demand for Cline came higher earnings. Reportedly, she was paid at least $1,000 per appearance toward the end of her life. This was an unheard-of sum for country music women, whose average fees were less than $200 a show. Her penultimate concert, held in Birmingham, Alabama, grossed $3,000.
To match her new sophisticated sound, Cline also reinvented her personal style, shedding her trademark Western cowgirl outfits for more elegant gowns, cocktail dresses, spiked heels, and gold lamé pants. In the days before Tanya Tucker's skintight leather pants, Dottie West's (who was once close friends with Patsy) flashy spandex outfits, and Reba McEntire's famous red dress shocked the country music establishment, Patsy's new image was considered riskier and sexier than anything anybody had ever seen. Country music industry personnel and fans were more used to seeing gingham and calico dresses. Like her sound, Cline's style in fashion was mocked at first, then copied. She also loved dangly earrings, ruby-red lipstick and her favorite perfume was Wind Song.
During her 5½-year career, Cline received a dozen awards for her achievements, and three more following her death from the Music Reporter, Billboard Awards and Cashbox.
Cline wrote of her success in a letter to friend Anne Armstrong: "It's wonderful â€"- but what do I do for '63? It's getting so even Cline can't follow Cline!"
During the same period, Dottie West, June Carter Cash, and Loretta Lynn recalled Cline telling them that she felt a sense of impending doom and did not expect to live much longer. Cline, already known for her excessive generosity, had begun giving away personal items to friends; she wrote her will on Delta Air Lines stationery and asked close friends to care for her children should anything happen to her. She told The Jordanaires' bass singer Ray Walker as she exited the Grand Ole Opry the week before her death: "Honey, I've had two bad ones (accidents). The third one will either be a charm or it'll kill me".
The Last Sessions
In early February, Cline was back in the Quonset hut to record her fourth and what would become her final album of new material, originally entitled Faded Love. Mixing country standards and such vintage pop classics as Irving Berlin's "Always" and "Does Your Heart Beat for Me", these sessions were the most contemporary-sounding of her career. They featured a full string section with no conventional country music instruments. Before her death, as Owen Bradley told Patsy author Margaret Jones, he and Cline had talked of doing an album of show tunes and standards, including "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", since Cline was such a fan of Helen Morgan, who had recorded the song back in 1927.
Cline got so involved with the stories in the songs' lyrics, she reportedly cried through most of her final sessions. The raw emotion can be plainly heard on such tracks as "Sweet Dreams" and at the end of "Faded Love". At the playback party, held after the sessions on February 7, according to singer Jan Howard in the documentary Remembering Patsy, Cline held up a copy of her first record and gestured towards the recording booth referencing her newest tracks and said, "Well, here it is ... the first and the last".
Loretta Lynn, also present at the playback party after having gotten herself and her husband Mooney up out of bed at the singer's request, admonished her. "Oh, Patsy!" she cried. Taken aback, the singer said, "Oh, don't get upset. I was only talking about my first recordings compared to the ones we did tonight. Listen to the difference". Cline died a month later.
Death
On March 3, 1963, Cline performed a benefit at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Kansas, for the family of disc jockey "Cactus" Jack Call. He had died in an automobile crash a little over a month earlier. Call was a longtime DJ for KCKN, but had switched to KCMK a week before his death on January 25, 1963, at the age of 39. Also performing in the show were George Jones, George Riddle and The Jones Boys, Billy Walker, Dottie West, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, George McCormick, the Clinch Mountain Boys as well as Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins.
Cline, ill with the flu, gave three performances, at 2 p.m. and 5:15Â p.m., with an 8 p.m. show added due to popular demand. All the shows were standing-room only. For the 2 p.m. show, she wore a sky-blue tulle-laden dress; for the 5:15 show a red shocker; and for the closing show at 8 p.m., Cline wore white chiffon, closing the evening to a thunderous ovation. Her final song was the last she had recorded the previous month, "I'll Sail My Ship Alone."
Cline, who had spent the night at the Town House Motor Hotel, was unable to fly out the day after the concert because Fairfax Airport was fogged in. West asked Patsy to ride in the car with her and husband, Bill, back to Nashville, a 16-hour drive, but Cline refused, saying, "Don't worry about me, Hoss. When it's my time to go, it's my time." On March 5, she called her mother from the motel and checked out at 12:30Â p.m., going the short distance to the airport and boarding a Piper PA-24 Comanche plane, aircraft registration number N-7000P. The plane stopped once in Missouri to refuel and subsequently landed at Dyersburg Municipal Airport in Dyersburg, Tennessee at 5 p.m.
Hughes was the pilot, but was not trained in instrument flying. Hawkins had accepted Billy Walker's place after Walker left on a commercial flight to take care of a stricken family member. The Dyersburg, Tennessee, airfield manager suggested that they stay the night because of high winds and inclement weather, offering them free rooms and meals. But Hughes responded, "I've already come this far. We'll be there before you know it." The plane took off at 6:07Â p.m. Hughes' flight instructor, Elmo Merriwether, had also trained Jim Reeves, whose plane crashed the following year. Neither pilot was instrument-rated, and both attempted to navigate by visual flight rules (VFR), which proved impossible in the driving rain faced by both flights.
Cline's flight crashed in heavy weather on the evening of March 5, 1963. Her recovered wristwatch had stopped at 6:20Â p.m. The plane was found some 90 miles (140Â km) from its Nashville destination, in a forest outside Camden, Tennessee. Forensic examination concluded that everyone aboard had been killed instantly. Until the wreckage was discovered the following dawn and reported on the radio, friends and family had not given up hope. Endless calls tied up the local telephone exchanges to such a degree that other emergency calls had trouble getting through. The lights at the destination Cornelia Fort Airpark were kept on throughout the night, as reports of the missing plane were broadcast on radio and TV.
Early in the morning, Roger Miller and a friend went searching for survivors: "As fast as I could, I ran through the woods screaming their names--through the brush and the trees--and I came up over this little rise, oh, my God, there they were. It was ghastly. The plane had crashed nose down." Shortly after the bodies were removed, looters scavenged the area. Some of the items which were recovered were eventually donated to The Country Music Hall of Fame. Among them were Cline's wristwatch, Confederate flag cigarette lighter, studded belt and three pairs of gold lamé slippers. Cline's fee and her attire from the last performance were never recovered.
Per her wishes, Cline's body was brought home for her memorial service, which thousands attended. She was buried at Shenandoah Memorial Park in her hometown of Winchester, Virginia. Her grave is marked with a bronze plaque, which reads: "Virginia H. Dick (Patsy Cline) is noted under her name. 'Death Cannot Kill What Never Dies: Love'." With the help of Loretta Lynn and Dottie West, a bell tower was erected at the cemetery in her memory, which plays hymns daily at 6:00Â p.m., the hour of her death. Another memorial marks the exact place off Fire Tower Road in Fatty Bottom, Tennessee, where the plane crashed in the still-remote forest.
Family
Cline's mother, Hilda Hensley, died in 1998 of natural causes at 82; Samuel Hensley died of cirrhosis of the liver in the mid-1950s. Mrs. Hensley was a seamstress in Winchester, Virginia, helping to raise her grandchildren, and rarely gave interviews. Cline's daughter, Julie Dick Fudge, said in 1985: "Grannie loved my mother so much that it's still hard for her to talk about [the accident]." In her later years, Hensley said, "I never knew so many people loved my daughter."
As Hilda was only 16 years older than Patsy, the two were very close. Cline's brother died in 2004. Her sister still lives in Virginia. Until his death on November 8, 2015, Cline's widower, Charlie Dick, resided in Nashville, producing documentaries on Cline and attending fan functions. In 1965, he married singer Jamey Ryan, who signed a brief contract with Columbia Records before giving birth to a son. They divorced in the early 1970s. In the film Sweet Dreams, Ryan provided the vocals for one song, "Blue Christmas," a tune Cline never recorded.
Daughter Julie has four children. One, Virginia, named for Cline, was killed in an automobile accident in 1994. Six grandchildren survive. Julie represents Cline's estate at public functions.
Legacy
Impact and influence
In the 2003 book Remembering Patsy, guitarist-producer Harold Bradley said of Cline, "She's taken the standards for being a country music vocalist, and raised the bar. Even now, women are trying to get to that bar.... If you're going to be a country singer, and if you're not going to copy her â€" and most people do come to town doing just that â€" then you have to be aware of her technique. It's always good to know what was in the past, because someone might think they're pretty hot until they hear her.... It gives all the female singers coming in something to gauge their talents against. And I expect it will forever."
When Cline made her first commercial recordings in 1955, Kitty Wells was the top female vocalist in the field. By the time Cline broke through as a consistent hit-maker, Wells, known as The Queen of Country Music, was still country's biggest female star. Cline dethroned her in 1961-62, however, winning the Billboard Magazine Award for Favorite Female Country & Western Artist for two years in a row as well as the Music Reporter Star of The Year Award for 1962.
Posthumous
1963-1985
Three of Cline's songs became posthumous Top 10 Country hits: "Sweet Dreams," "Leavin' on Your Mind" and "Faded Love." Instead of the last sessions being programmed into an album of their own and released intact, a double-album entitled The Patsy Cline Story was released in June 1963 by Decca (now Universal Music Group). The album featured many of her greatest hits, a few singles that had never been previously released on albums, and about half of the material recorded during the February 4â€"7 sessions of 1963. In 1988, the material was released almost in its entirety as The Last Sessions. Rather than being programmed into an album as all her previous releases had been, this release merely presented the tracks in their original chronological session order. Two tracks from the periodâ€"the first track recorded on February 4 ("Faded Love"), and the last track recorded on February 7 ("I'll Sail My Ship Alone")--do not appear in this compilation.
By the mid-1960s, MCA had acquired Decca and continued to issue Cline albums into the early 1970s, garnering the artist several posthumous hits along the way. Some of the more notable start in early 1964 with a Top 25 country hit "He Called Me Baby," a song recorded during her "last sessions" in 1963. The track was released on her 1964 album That's How a Heartache Begins. Her Greatest Hits album, released in 1967, continues to occasionally appear on the country music charts and was the longest album to stay on the country charts in country music history until Garth Brooks surpassed it in the 1990s.
In 1973, Cline was the first female solo artist to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Johnny Cash announced the honor for the CMA Awards show, televised live from Ryman Auditorium.
In the late 1970s, Cline's name occasionally appeared in magazine articles and television interviews with West and Lynn, who credited her with inspiration for their success. Although Lynn said in her 1976 autobiography that she would never record an album of Patsy's hits "because it would hurt too much," she did just that a year later. The tribute album, I Remember Patsy, was released in 1977 and contained the single "She's Got You," a hit with Cline in 1962, and renditions of such other Cline favorites as "Crazy," "Back in Baby's Arms" and "Sweet Dreams."
Lynn's 1976 autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, featured an entire chapter dedicated to her friendship with Cline. Viewers were reintroduced to Patsy when the biopic of the same name was released four years later. After Coal Miner's Daughter opened, MCA re-released "Always." The soundtrack released used the original 1963 vocal and overdubs by many of the Nashville sound musicians who had been a part of the original scene. The song reached No. 18 on the Hot Country Songs list in 1980. In 1981, two electronically produced duets were released between Cline and Jim Reeves, who died the year after her in another plane crash. Their duet of "Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue)" was a No. 5 country hit that year and their duet of "I Fall to Pieces" became an interesting footnote in music history. Like Cline, Reeves gained a massive fan base after his death, as well as a string of re-issued singles. In 1985, the movie Sweet Dreams appeared, starring Jessica Lange as Patsy.
1990â€"2000
In 1992, the U.S. Postal Service created special-issue postage stamps to honor Patsy Cline, along with other country superstars such as Hank Williams, the Carter Family and Bob Wills.
A Patsy Cline exhibit was featured in 1993 when the Grand Ole Opry opened its doors in Nashville for its inaugural season. Several of her awards, stage outfits, wigs, make-up, hairbrushes, and a fully furnished replica of her dream home's music room were on display. The year marked the 30th anniversary of her death, so the Opry made its Saturday night segment a tribute to Cline, Hawkins and Copas. With Cline's widower and their daughter in attendance, her longtime friend Jan Howard paid tribute to Cline by singing "I Fall to Pieces" (co-written by Howard's ex-husband, Harlan Howard); Lynn followed with the classic "She's Got You." Later that year, Lynn, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette included Cline's cover of "Lovesick Blues" on their Honky Tonk Angels trio album, singing along with Cline's original vocals lifted off the early multi-track tapes. A year later, Cline became a member of the Texas Cowgirl Hall of Fame.
In 1997, Cline's recording of "Crazy" was named the number one jukebox hit of all time. "I Fall to Pieces" came in at No. 17. In 1998, she was nominated to The Hollywood Walk of Fame by a dedicated fan, and received her star posthumously in 1999; later, a street was named after her on the back lot of Universal Studios.
Also in 1999, VH1 named Cline number 11 on its 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll. She was also honored with the Nashville Golden Voice Award in its Legend Category that same year.
2000â€"present
In 2002, CMT named Cline first on its 40 Greatest Women of Country Music, voted by members of the music industry. "I Fall to Pieces" was listed at No. 107 on RIAA's list of Songs of the Century in 2001. Lynn released a sequel to her autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, called Still Woman Enough and again dedicated a chapter to her friendship with Cline (called "Still Thinking of Patsy").
Early in 2005, Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits was certified by the RIAA as Diamond, recognizing the sale of 10 million copies. The album was listed as Longest-Charting Title by a Female Artist in the 2005 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. For its 40th anniversary reissue in 2007, Bob Ludwig remastered the album and featured the original 1967 cover art.
Later in 2005, Cline's childhood home in Winchester, Virginia, was awarded a prominent on-site marker cast in bronze for a place on The National Register of Historic Places. The house was placed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and features a State of Virginia Historical Marker on the street in front. Each year, on Labor Day weekend, thousands of fans celebrate Cline's birthday at Shenandoah Memorial Park. Cline's widower, daughter, and all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as well as other family members, attended the 20th annual gathering on September 8, 2007. After a multimillion-dollar renovation at her former school, built in 1923, authorities dedicated The Patsy Cline Theatre there in 2009. Winchester has also built a memorial bell tower at Shenandoah Memorial Park and named two roadways after her, the Patsy Cline Memorial Highway and Patsy Cline Boulevard.
A museum dedicated to Cline opened to the public on April 7, 2017. The Patsy Cline Museum is located at 119 3rd Avenue South in Nashville, Tennessee, on the second floor of The Johnny Cash Museum building. The Patsy Cline Museum houses the largest collection of Cline artifacts and memorabilia under one roof. Exhibits include original clothing and stage costumes, awards, as well as household and personal items from Cline's Nashville-area "dream home."
Portrayals
Movies and documentaries
In Coal Miner's Daughter, Beverly D'Angelo portrayed Patsy alongside Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn. The film gained a wide audience. Instead of lip-synching to the original recordings, as was common during the period, both actresses sang. Contrary to the movie script, Cline and Lynn never toured together. Cline also never owned a bus, though she had planned to buy one before her death, and stars during her time usually traveled in caravans and limousines.
In 1985, HBO/Tri Star Pictures released Sweet Dreams: The Life and Times of Patsy Cline, starring Jessica Lange in the lead role with Ed Harris and Ann Wedgeworth as her husband Charlie Dick and her mother Hilda Hensley, respectively. The film was based on research by Bernard Schwartz. Lange lip-synched to Cline's original recordings.
The film depicted Cline's marriage to Dick as abusive, portraying Cline as a victim of domestic violence; however, as Dottie West commented in a 1986 interview, "It was always very interesting to watch â€" because you always knew Patsy was going to win! He was her man. He was her lover." Cline's mother was quoted in a 1985 issue of People as saying, "The producers told me they were going to make a love story. I saw the film once. That was enough. Jessica (Lange) did well with what she had to work with." Charlie Dick stated in the same article, "It's a great film â€" if you like fiction." The remainder of Cline's family and close friends claimed that numerous sequences in the film had been inaccurately fictionalized for Hollywood and were not pleased with the final product.
Several inaccuracies in Sweet Dreams revolved around the plane crash. The aircraft used was a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, not a Piper Comanche, and the crash's cause was portrayed as difficulty restarting the engine after switching fuel tanks. The film also depicted the plane crashing into a mountain cliff and bursting into flames, though there are no mountains at the actual crash site and the plane did not explode. In Billboard's review of Ellis Nassour's 1981 Patsy Cline: An Intimate Biography, the reviewer gives high praise to Nassour for his research in recreating events leading up to the crash and the crash itself. In the 2008 revised edition [Chicago Review Press, 2008] of Nassour's second biography, Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline [1993, St. Martin's Press], Nassour includes further documentation obtained from the official CAB (Civil Aeronautics Board) report on the crash, which is kept at the regional office of the National Archives in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sweet Dreams was a modest hit and Lange was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, one she has mentioned as a favorite. The soundtrack, featuring several numbers overdubbed with new orchestral arrangements, was a success, and Cline's recordings began to climb the charts again, as was the case after the publication of Coal Miner's Daughter. Since the earlier overdubbed recordings had done so well, Bradley and arranger Bill McElhiney laid her original vocals onto a digitally-recorded background for a fresh new sound. These new recordings returned Cline's voice to attention once again, producing several hits with Walkin' After Midnight Lovesick Blues and Foolin' Round from the soundtrack.
Subsequently, more accurate video documentaries have been produced, including Sweet Dreams Still: The Live Collection, The Real Patsy Cline and Remembering Patsy. The latter was re-edited and used on the show Biography on the A&E Cable Channel in the mid-1990s.
Ten years after Sweet Dreams, Patsy was portrayed again in Big Dreams and Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story, a 1995 CBS made-for-TV movie featuring Tere Myers as Patsy and Michelle Lee as Dottie. In 2007, a biopic entitled Crazy, about the life of Hank Garland, lead guitarist on many of Patsy's records, featured Mandy Barnett of Always ... Patsy Cline fame as Patsy.
Plays and musicals
A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline and Always ... Patsy Cline are the only plays approved by the Patsy Cline Estate and licensed by Legacy, Inc., the family company.
A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, created by Dean Regan in 1991, is a musical tribute that showcases her life and music. It has been produced across the United States and Canada, with multiple productions by the Springer Opera House and Troupe America, Inc. It ran under the name Patsy! at the Grand Palace in Branson, Missouri, for a year, starring Gail Bliss. Other performers in the role have been Katie Deal, Julie Johnson, Devra Straker, Sara-Jeanne Hosie, Bridget Beirne and Alison MacDonald.
Always ... Patsy Cline, produced by Ted Swindley, premiered in 1988. The story was taken and expanded from a section of the Cline biography Honky Tonk Angel by Ellis Nassour. Always chronicles her encounter in 1961 with Louise Seger, a fan and Mississippi native who arrived early at the Esquire Ballroom in Houston for Cline's performance. Meeting before the show, the two formed a lasting friendship. In the musical, Cline tells Seger her worries about the attendance that night, and Seger tells her she'll have no problem filling the hall. She later persuades Cline to spend the night at her house rather than a hotel. They stay up all night talking, and do a radio spot in the morning.
The musical relied on letters that Seger received from Cline. They gave a close look at Cline's daily life. The title came from the sign-off Cline used at the end of each letter. The show has played across the U.S., running off-Broadway in New York City and for over a year at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, where it sold out nightly, starring singer Mandy Barnett.
Discography
- Studio albums
- 1957: Patsy Cline
- 1961: Patsy Cline Showcase
- 1962: Sentimentally Yours
- Posthumous studio albums
- 1963: The Patsy Cline Story, Decca Records compilation
- 1964: A Portrait of Patsy Cline
- 1964: That's How a Heartache Begins
- 1980: Always
Cover versions of Cline songs
- "Walkin' After Midnight" was recorded by Kellie Pickler and Madeleine Peyroux. Pickler originally sang the song on the 2006 season of American Idol. The Kentucky Headhunters recorded the song on their Big Boss Man album released in 2005. A live version of the song was covered by Bryan Adams, Garth Brooks, Kelly Clarkson and Megan Joy. Fiona Apple has also performed the song. Tejana punk band Girl in a Coma included a cover of this song on their 2010 album Adventures in Coverland. Canadian folk-rockers Cowboy Junkies also recorded a version of the song, which appears on the band's 1990 album, The Trinity Sessions. Also, the industrial band Braindead Soundmachine covered this in the early 1990s on the Wax Trax label including remixes by Industrial Rock Gurus KMFDM. The song was also covered by new-wave country band Rubber Rodeo.
- "I Fall to Pieces" was covered by country artists Michael Nesmith, LeAnn Rimes, Lynn Anderson, Linda Ronstadt, Loretta Lynn, Ray Price, the Greg Kihn Band and Willie Nelson. In 1992, it was covered by jazz guitarist Marc Ribot on the album Yo! I Killed Your God. In 1995, a cover by pop-punk band Screeching Weasel was included on their compilation release Kill the Musicians. In 2003, it was covered by Natalie Cole on a tribute CD to Cline.
- "Crazy" (written by Nelson) has been covered by artists including Linda Ronstadt, LeAnn Rimes, Diana DeGarmo, Loretta Lynn, Dottie West, Wanda Jackson, Julio Iglesias, Don McLean, Norah Jones, Kidneythieves and The Kills. The song has also been remixed by DJ Simple Simon and The Fabulous Wonder Twins.
- "She's Got You" was recorded by Loretta Lynn, Dottie West, Lee Ann Womack, LeAnn Rimes, Rhiannon Giddens, and Cat Power. It became a No. 1 hit for Lynn in 1977. Also, a version of the song titled "He's Got You" was covered by Ricky Van Shelton in 1990 and in 2004 by Elvis Costello on the album "Almost Blue". Jimmy Buffett's cover for his 1994 album Fruitcakes mixed the male and female perspectives into one song.
- "Leavin' on Your Mind" has been covered by LeAnn Rimes, Loretta Lynn and Rissi Palmer.
- "Sweet Dreams", originally a hit for Faron Young in the 1950s, has been remade by both Emmylou Harris and Reba McEntire became hits for both of them in the 1970s. Other versions include performances by Skeeter Davis, songwriter Don Gibson, Elvis Costello and Tommy McLain. There is also an instrumental version by guitarist Roy Buchanan, which was featured along with Cline's original in 2006's The Departed. Tammy Wynette recorded the song in 1968 for her D-I-V-O-R-C-E album, and performed it during a 1970 appearance on the TV show Hee Haw
- "Faded Love" has been recorded by Ray Price, Willie Nelson, The Statler Brothers and Loretta Lynn. It was originally a hit for Bob Wills in 1950 and before that, an original fiddle instrumental Wills's father created. Wills's younger brother Billy Jack Wills wrote the lyrics.
- "Imagine That" was covered by Sara Evans and was in her album Three Chords and the Truth.
- "Strange" is covered by Sharam and Kid Cudi in a house remix titled "She Came Along" that was released in 2009. It was also covered by Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) in an acoustic radio session with Triple J in January 2012.
- "Pick Me Up On Your Way Down" is covered by GG Allin.
- "Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" has been recorded as a single in 1987 by kd lang, who was highly inspired by Patsy Cline to pursue her own professional singing career. She covered also "Crazy" and "I Fall to Pieces" on live shows.
References
Further reading
- Bego, Mark. I Fall to Pieces: The Music and the Life of Patsy Cline. Adams Media Corporation.
- Hazen, Cindy and Mike Freeman. Love Always, Patsy. The Berkley Publishing Group.
- Hofstra, Warren R. (ed.), Sweet Dreams: The World of Patsy Cline. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
- Jones, Margaret (1998). "Patsy Cline". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 98â€"9.
- Wolff, Kurt. Country Music: The Rough Guide. Penguin Publishing.
- Gomery, Douglas Patsy Cline: The Making of an Icon. Trafford Publishing.
- Bartles. Charlotte Brannon and Linda M. Sowers (2005) "Patsy Cline: Our Father's Other Daughter" iUniverse
External links
- Patsy Cline at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- A Tribute to Patsy Cline: Her Life and Career
- Patsy Cline at the Country Music Hall of Fame
- The Patsy Cline Plane Crash
- "For Patsy Cline's Hometown, an Embrace that Took Decades", Dan Barry, The New York Times, 23 December 2012