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Patsy Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley September 8, 1932 in Winchester, Virginia. Her mother, Hilda Hensley, had married Samuel Lawrence Hensley just six days before giving birth to Patsy, and was just 16 years old at the time. Patsy was the third child of the family, with Samuel already having two children from a previous marriage. Early life was filled with many moves and much family time for Patsy. Shortly after her birth, the family moved to Elkton, Virginia, and over the course of the next 13 years, they would pick up and start over a total of 20 times.
Early legend holds that Patsy was entertaining the neighbors as early as age 3. Referred to at home and at school as "Ginny," Cline longed to be a dancer, idolizing Shirley Temple. After winning first prize in a local children's dance contest however, Patsy lost interest and turned her attention to music. She began like most children, pounding the keys of a piano, teaching herself to play by ear. Within a few years, she was singing in the Baptist church choir in her hometown.
At the age of 13, Patsy became deathly ill with Rheumatic Fever after suffering a minor throat infection. During the course of her illness, Patsy heart stopped beating, she had to endure daily life from an oxygen tent and remained secluded from others. Years later, Patsy would attribute her booming, throaty voice to the disease which almost took her life.
Patsy's father abandoned the family in in 1947, when Patsy was just 15 years old. Her mother, brother and sister all worked to support the family and formed a strong bond. Patsy worked several different jobs to care for her younger siblings, including tending a food counter at the Greyhound Bus Terminal, working as a clerk and fountain attendant at a drug store, a policing the kitchen at the restaurant where her mother was employed as a waitress. Patsy also sang at local bars and dances during this time and on the advice of Bill Peer, who helped shape her early career, she changed her name from "Virginia" to Patsy.
Patsy married Gerald Cline in 1953. It was a brief, unhappy marriage that ended in divorce in 1956 after Cline met what she would later call "the love of her life," Charlie Dick. During her first year of marriage however, Patsy's voice traveled the music circuit and word of her talent quickly spread. In 1954, she signed her first ever recording contract with Four Star Records. Charlie and Patsy would marry the following year, and have two children, Julie and Allen.
In 1956, Patsy traveled to West Virginia to visit her father, who was suffering from lung cancer. She excitedly shared the news of her singing success with her father and seemed to hold no grudge against him. Patsy said goodbye to her father in that hospital. He would not live to hear his daughter sing. He died on December 11, 1956. In 1957, Patsy won an Arthur Godfrey Talent program with the hit song, "Walkin After Midnight," and was thrust into instant fame. She appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in 1958.
Early in 1961, Patsy and her brother were involved in a head-on car crash in Nashville that sent Patsy through the windshield, nearly killing her. While recuperating in the hospital, Patsy tuned in to a live radio broadcast one night and heard a new singer named Loretta Lynn singing her hit, "I Fall to Pieces." Loretta had dedicated the song to Patsy and wished her well. Touched, Patsy sent her husband to the broadcast to fetch this young singer and bring her back for an introduction. It would be the beginning of a lifelong friendship.
With a large scar on her forehead from the accident, Patsy donned a wig and continued her country music career in Nashville. She would be named the #1 Female Artist of the Year in 1961 and 1962. "I Fall to Pieces," Patsy's catchy, popular single reached the top of the Billboard music charts in 1962.
On March 3, 1963, Patsy agreed to perform at a benefit concert in Kansas City for the family of a local disc jockey. Grounded by bad weather in Kansas City for a day and half, Patsy was offered a seat in Dottie West's car. Just as she was set to leave, the weather cleared, and Patsy decided to fly home on her manager's yellow Piper Comanche after all. The plane and all its passengers, including Randy Hughes, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins were last seen at the airfield in Dyersburg, Tennessee, just 90 miles from home. The plane Patsy was riding in crashed in Tennessee. Patsy Cline died on March 5, 1963.
Patsy Cline was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, ten years after her death. Her mother and sister both attended the ceremony, in which Patsy was honored. She was the first ever female solo artist to be honored.
A bell tower has been erected in Patsy's memory at the Shenandoah Memorial Park, where Patsy was interred. Several Highways, including the Patsy Cline Memorial Highway, Route 522 and Patsy Cline Boulevard have also been dedicated in her honor.
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