Patsy Cline
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Patsy Cline, (September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963) was a country music singer.
Born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia, she received her first contract as a country singer in 1953 and, despite her short life, would become one of the most influential singers in history. "Cline" was the last name of her first husband, from whom she was divorced well before becoming famous.
Her breakthrough hit was "Walkin' After Midnight" (1957), written by Don Hecht and Alan Block. She became a mainstay on the country music showcase "Grand Ole Opry" in 1960. Though she began her career recording rockabilly, it became clear that Cline's voice was best suited for pop/country crossover tunes. Some signature songs are "Crazy" (written by Willie Nelson but forever linked to Cline), "She's Got You," "I Fall To Pieces", and "Sweet Dreams."
On June 14, 1961, Patsy Cline and her brother were involved in a head-on car collision. The impact of the accident threw Patsy through the windshield, nearly killing her. Suffering from a jagged cut across her forehead that required stitches, a broken wrist, and a dislocated hip, she spent a month in the hospital. When she left the hospital, her forehead was still visibly scarred.
Cline died in a plane crash at Camden, Tennessee while returning from Kansas City, Missouri at the age of 30, in 1963. On the airplane with her and also killed were two other country music figures who were fairly well-known at the time, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas. She is interred in the Shenendoah Memorial Park cemetery, in her hometown of Winchester, Virginia.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6160 Hollywood Blvd.
She was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973.
The 1985 movie Sweet Dreams, starring Jessica Lange, is based on her adult life and is said by some familiar with her to be fairly accurate in many respects, although some have disputed its portrayal of her mercurial relationship with second husband Charlie Dick (portrayed in the film by Ed Harris). However, its depiction of the plane crash as occuring in high desert mountains totally unlike any terrain found in West Tennessee is wildy inaccurate.
Further reading
- In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music,
Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998, ISBN 0-375-70082-x
External link
[1] IMDb entry for Sweet Dreams
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