A North American Icon
by David Baughan

Patsy Cline is an iconic North American personality. My first theatre tour was through cottage country in Ontario with another Patsy Cline production and, although the tour was fairly disastrous with the continual bickering between the band members and the two actors playing Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn, I was intrigued by the strength Patsy Cline must have had to not only survive but to become a figure of stature within such a male-dominated industry.

She was born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia in 1932 when her mother was aged 15. She left school at the age of 15, when her father deserted the family, to help support her mother, younger brother and sister. She had a serious throat infection as a child that left her with a "booming voice" according to Cline herself. As a child she often sang in church with her mother and it turned out she had perfect pitch.

Cline started performing in variety-talent showcases in and around Winchester and at various nightclubs to help bring in much-needed cash for the family.

She met and married Gerald Cline in 1953 but the marriage was dissolved four years later, partly due to the considerable age differences and partly because of his lack of support for her wish to sing professionally. Around the same time she was introduced to Bill Peer, who became her manager and gave her the name Patsy Cline. Her many appearances on the local radio station (WINC-AM) began to attract a following in the Virginia-Maryland area. From there she became a regular on a Washington, D.C. television show entitled Town and Country.

In 1955 she signed a record deal with Four Star Records, although she later said she regretted it because they only allowed her to record compositions by other company artists. At the time, the whole country music industry was controlled by men as was her entire recording career. None of her first recordings gained any noticeable success although she recorded over 50 songs with Four Star. She tried various styles including rockabilly, honky-tonk and churchy tear-jerkers, and it was only when she was pushed towards pop that she began to be noticed.

"Walkin' After Midnight", written by Don Hecht and Alan Block, was offered to her but she initially turned it down because it was, according to her "just a little old pop song". However the song's writers and the record company producers insisted she record it. When she auditioned for the CBS-TV show, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, she was pressured into singing it and was also told what to wear. Her performance was very well received and "Walkin' After Midnight" went to number two on the country charts.

Around this time she met and married Charlie Dick. Their lives are portrayed in the movie Sweet Dreams: The Life and Times of Patsy Cline produced in 1985. They moved to Nashville after the birth of their first child and in 1960 she started with a new manager, Randy Hughes, and a new record company, Decca. She soon began to experience more success in both the country and pop music charts.

She became part of the Nashville sound created by producer Owen Bradley, who added strings and other instruments not typical of country music at the time. Her first release with Decca was "I Fall to Pieces" and it became her first number one hit on the country charts. The increase in popularity led to her becoming a well-known name in country music and joining the cast of the Grand Ole Opry.

Her follow up to "I Fall to Pieces" was "Crazy", recorded in late 1961 and it became her biggest hit. She was the first female country musician to perform at Carnegie Hall and the first to headline her own show in Las Vegas. The rise in fame was at the expense of considerable tragedy in her life. Her strength seems to have come from a very tough upbringing and domestic violence, as well as a near-fatal car accident in 1961. She had to wear a wig and makeup to hide the scars she received when she was thrown through the windshield. The heartbreaking emotion of the performances underlines her tragic experiences.

On March 3, 1963 she performed at a benefit concert in Kansas City. After the show a friend offered her a car ride but she chose to fly back to Nashville with two other musicians, Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins and with manager Randy Hughes at the controls. They refuelled at Dyersburg in Tennessee where they were advised to stay over because of the bad weather. They ignored the advice and crashed about 90 miles from their destination with no survivors.

Her career was short - only five-and-a-half years. But her records continued to be released posthumously. In 1973 she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1963 three of her songs, "Sweet Dreams", "Leavin' On Your Mind" and "Faded Love" became Top 10 Country hits and her fourth album, The Patsy Cline Story was also released in that year.

Although she was able to make a name for herself within the country music industry and created a path that several women (Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton) were able to follow there was no breakthrough into other areas of the music industry. Many of those that followed also struggled with violence within the family and perceptions of who they should be within country music. "Stand by Your Man" was the expectation.

In 2002 Cline was voted by artists and members of the country music industry as number one on the television special, The 40 Greatest Women of Country Music.