Quicknation    Patsy Cline

Images of Patsy Cline: G Y AOL AV MSN Books of Patsy Cline: B

Patsy Cline results from: AltaVista A9 AOL Clusty Gigablast Google Lycos MSN Teoma Wisenut Yahoo

Patsy Cline in Winchester, Virginia, United States, 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 the history of American popular music. Cline was the last name of her first husband, Gerald Cline, a construction industry mogul, whom she married in 1953 and divorced in 1957.

That same year, Cline married Charles Allen Dick, who worked as a linotype operator for the . They had a daughter, Julia Simadore Dick (b. 1958; now known as Julie Fudge), and a son, Allen Randolph "Randy" Dick (b. 1961).

table

Cline rocketed to fame after she performed her breakthrough hit "Walkin' After Midnight" (1957) on the in 1960. Though she began her career recording rockabilly, it became clear that Cline's voice was best suited for popcountry crossover tunes, especially love songs. Some signature songs are "Crazy" (written by Willie Nelson but forever linked to Cline), "She's Got You", "I Fall To Pieces", and Don Gibson's "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 three other country music figures who were fairly well-known at the time, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Randy Hughes, and Cowboy Copas. Hughes, Cline's manager, was the plane's pilot. Country singer Jack Anglin died in an automobile accident while driving to her funeral.

Were she alive today, Patsy Cline would have four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. After Cline's death, Charlie Dick married and divorced Jamey Ryan, also a singer, and had a son, Charles Allen Dick, Jr.

Cline is interred in the Shenandoah Memorial Park cemetery in her hometown of Winchester, Virginia.

Among her many honors, 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, in 1993 she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp and in 1995, she was awarded posthumously a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The 1985 movie , starring Jessica Lange as Cline, 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 occurring in high desert mountains totally unlike any terrain found in West Tennessee is wildly inaccurate. Another adaptation of her life is the one-woman musical, which originated in Canada in the 1990s and originally starred Louise Vallance as Cline.

"I Fall to Pieces" was voted #107 on the RIAA list of the Songs of the Century.

In 2005 her album "Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits" was certified by the RIAA as Diamond, meaning it had reached sales of 10 million copies.

Had Patsy lived to get back to Nashville, the next song she was to record was entitled simply "Blue". After her death, no artist would go near the song. Its rumored several female artists including Patsy's good friend Loretta Lynn were offered the chance, no one took Patsy's record company on the offer. The song went unrecorded for over thirty years, until a young LeAnn Rimes was offered the chance to sing the song. To honor Patsy, LeAnn tried to sing the song in Patsy Cline's