Program Information

Patsy Cline became a cultural legend at a time when country music was ghettoized, when only rarely did a country song cross over to the pop charts, and when female country singers were second-class citizens. She broke down all the walls.

A Moment in Time is a brief, exciting and compelling journey into the past. Created to excite and enlighten the public about the past, its relevance to the present and its impact on the future, A Moment In Time is a captivating historical narrative that is currently broadcast worldwide.

Transcript

Lead: Patsy Cline became a cultural legend at a time when country music was ghettoized, when only rarely did a country song cross over to the pop charts, and when female country singers were second-class citizens. She broke down all the walls.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Virginia Patterson Hensley was born the eldest of three children in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932. Her daddy was a blacksmith and her mother was a seamstress. It was the Depression and they were very poor and had to move around for work.

The family settled back in Winchester when she was in eighth grade, and that's when she began to sing. She had no formal training, but Patsy loved to dance, played piano by ear and, like many popular singers, got her start singing in church. When she was 13, she had a severe throat infection which developed into rheumatic fever. After coming out of the hospital, she discovered that she had this huge voice which boomed, she said, "like Kate Smith's." During her teenage years, she sang on local radio shows, at dances and nightclubs--all while working as a waitress in Winchester to help support the family.

Until she was 20, she was known as Ginny when, at the suggestion of her manager, she changed her name--or stage name--to Patsy. In 1953 she married Gerald Cline, but the marriage didn't work out and they were divorced a few years later.

In an era when artists were nearly slaves of record companies, she signed with Four Star Records; but her big break came in 1957 when she won the night on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Show by singing her first big hit, "Walking after Midnight." That same year she married the love of her life, Charlie Dick. In 1960, Cline realized her life-long dream and began performing at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville. She moved to the Music City, signed with Decca Records and the hits began to pile up, most of them crossover tunes: “I Fall to Pieces,” “She’s Got You,” and her signature song, “Crazy.”

Next time: Tragedy in Tennessee.

At the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

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