(announcer) Next up is a young lady who is the hottest thing in country music these days.
She's taken her music to the Hollywood Bowl, Carnegie Hall, and is one of the finest voices in America.
Here she is singing one of her big, big hits, Miss Patsy Cline.
(Patsy) ♪ Crazy ♪ (Leann) She definitely crossed genres and boundaries.
(Patsy) ♪ For feelin' so lonely ♪ (Reba) She came through the car wreck, the bad marriage, I mean, the poverty that she lived in and having to quit school and go to work.
All of those things made her what she was.
(Patsy) ♪ Crazy for feeling... ♪ (Callie) She is to country music what Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday are to jazz or what Aretha Franklin is to soul.
(Patsy) ♪ You made me love you ♪ I was cast to play her with very little experience.
Patsy Cline had the most profound effect on my life of anybody I never met.
♪ I go out walkin' after midnight ♪ (Julie) My grandmother did realize that Mom did have talent, but I don't know if she ever knew just how much talent was there.
It would've been amazing to have seen how she would've developed, and we got cheated out of that.
(Patsy) Anybody cares to shake a leg, go ahead, we don't care which one it is.
(Kacey) She was just kind of a tough girl, you know, singing these really sensitive songs.
So it's kind of a cool juxtaposition there, like I feel like you could go out and have a drink with her, but she could also, like, beat your ass.
(Patsy) ♪ Down by the riverside ♪ ♪ Down by the riverside ♪ -Where!
-♪ Down by the riverside ♪ (Ricky) You have this singer from the other side of the Atlantic back then, and it transcends all boundaries.
(Patsy) ♪ Sweet dreams... ♪ (Willie) She was more than good.
There was something there that set her apart, and you can't describe it, or I can't.
Her voice is kind of the beginning of it, for me.
You know, it's how she operated, how she acted.
(male singer) ♪ When Patsy Cline was crazy ♪ ♪ When Patsy Cline was... ♪ (Patsy) ♪ Crazy for lovin' you ♪ (applause) (soft bluegrass music) (narrator) In 1932, in Winchester, Virginia, Hilda Patterson was to be married to 42-year-old Sam Hensley.
A week later, Virginia Patterson Hensley was born.
The little Ginny Hensley the world would come to know as Patsy Cline.
A few months later, her mother Hilda turned 17.
(Eddie) Patsy Cline was born in 1932.
The Great Depression was going on.
Those were some dark times.
(Judy Sue) In her first 16 years of life, her family moved 19 times.
He would go many, many places to seek work.
Lots of times, the young bride and the baby would be with him, and then lots of times not.
♪ (narrator) The best of the jobs Sam had was as boiler man at the aristocratic Washington and Lee University where the young family were housed on campus.
(Peter) When she opened her window, she could hear the world, and part of the world was these big bands there at Washington and Lee University.
(narrator) Real big bands, some of the biggest in the country, and each of them had a girl singer.
(Peter) She could start to sing along, mimic what was going on, and that developed in her a fascination for pop music, big band music.
She loved listening to music, she knew music very well from the time she was a little girl.
(narrator) But soon Sam was out of work, and things would take a turn for the worse.
Hilda, poor but proud, made a bold move.
(Judy Sue) She left Sam.
She packed up the three kids and what little bit she had, found this house in Winchester, and settled her family in.
$27.50 a month rent.
(Beverly Keel) A single mother living a life like many women are doing today, and this was back when it was unheard of.
(Judy Sue) They did not have the means to connect with local electricity or local water.
(Julie) They both kind of grew into adulthood together and, being that she was a few years older than her siblings, she helped with them a lot.
She actually did not attend school past the eighth grade.
(Judy Sue) Hilda sewed for the rich and the wealthy folks.
She also took in washing and ironing, especially the business, the white shirts, and she would also babysit.
(upbeat bluegrass music) (Jim) I came here to WINC in 1945 as, well, a little hillbilly group.
We weren't country music then, we were hillbillies.
(Judy Sue) Country music is not the choice here at that time.
However, Jumpin', Joltin' Jim McCoy had a country show on Saturday mornings.
Hilda and Ginny would listen to the radio and Jim McCoy would make the offer, "Come on by."
So she went there one Saturday morning.
(Jim) I can remember her walking right up to the window and pushing her nose right up to the glass and lookin' in, and finally, one day, she said she wanted to sing.
She liked to entertain, but I think it was a way to not only have a dream, but to help out.
(Peter) She started singing in bars and supper clubs, both country and pop music, when she was 14 years old.
She made her way down to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville for an audition before she was even old enough to appear.
(Patsy) ♪ Down in Dallas near the palace ♪ ♪ I met a boy who was so cute ♪ ♪ I loved his huggin', I loved his kissin' ♪ ♪ As we sat in his little red coupe ♪ ♪ He said, "Tell me confidentially, how much do you love me?"
♪ ♪ Well, I thought a while and then I smiled ♪ ♪ And this is what I told him, don't you see ♪ (Judy Sue) She did outrageous things, like bright red lipstick.
She wore men's pants, men's dungarees.
You just didn't do that.
The '50s was very prim, very proper.
(Charlie) She told me that she had had to quit school when she was 16, and then she worked at a meat packing place.
(Judy Sue) And it was her job to slit throats of the chickens as they came down the conveyor belt.
That job didn't last because she was underage, they found out.
From there, she went to the local Greyhound bus station where she cleaned the buses, worked the counter, -cleaned the restrooms.
-Patsy started working at a local drug store, and would do that during the day and then at night, she would sit in with bands around the area and get a chance to sing.
(Judy Sue) Dr. Gaunt was very lenient with her, and if there was a talent contest during the day, he would let her go.
There were a lot of talent contests then, and she never missed an opportunity to enter any contest.
She never won!
(Roy) First time I met Patsy, Connie B.
Gay brought her in to a club I was working in Washington, D.C. called The Famous.
And we'd all heard about this girl singer that was working with Bill Peer around Winchester and stuff.
(narrator) By her 20th birthday, Ginny leaves her day job and joins up with Bill Peer and the Melody Boys playing regular dates in halls and clubs and makes local TV appearances.
(Patsy) ♪ I love your money ♪ (Judy Sue) She started to sing with Jimmy Dean, but in the meantime, she's at one of the clubs in Brunswick, and she meets this gentleman by the name of Gerald Cline.
He was older, he was mature, some money, and probably the opportunity for a stable home life.
(Patsy) ♪ I love your automobile ♪ (lively music) ♪ (Peter) Clearly, there was some assumption that she would change for him, and she didn't share in that assumption.
When you grow up with nothing and you think that there's-- you want stability, yeah, you want stability, but not in that kind of way.
In order to try to take her career to the next level, Patsy signed a record deal with a company called 4 Star Records.
(Patsy) ♪ Each night, down on my knees I pray your gamblin' ways will end ♪ ♪ Turn the cards slowly ♪ (narrator) Bill Peer, acting as her manager, sealed the deal.
Ginny, now known as Patsy Cline, would earn half the industry standard, a meager 2.34% minus deductions.
(Alan) The owner of 4 Star, Bill McCall, the contract that he had her under, he had final approval of all the songs that she recorded.
He wanted her to record just the songs that he owned the publishing to so he could make money on the publishing rights and the song rights.
The hope is, these people have offered me a deal so at least I can get a physical record made and get some music out there, and maybe it will catch the attention of somebody.
I definitely can understand how, you know, how enslaved, almost, that feels.
You really feel like your hands are tied.
You really have to get permission to do everything and what music you're recording, and it's definitely kind of soul-sucking.
(Brenda) Unfortunately, it was not a great deal.
It was a great deal for 4 Star.
(mellow music) ♪ (Owen) The people at 4 Star had asked me to see if I could make some records with her.
This was like a big opportunity for me.
We made an arrangement to lease arrangements from 4 Star through Decca, and he asked me if I would record Patsy, and he said she was not too easy to get along with.
I found her to be very pleasant, and she was not-- maybe she was like I was, she was just trying to get along.
She was trying to become a singer and I was trying to become an A&R man, so we were sort of in the same boat.
(Patsy) I'd like to do one of my favorites that I recorded sometime back.
"A Church, a Courtroom, and Then Goodbye."
(Owen) The first song we did was the "Church, the Courtroom, and Goodbye," which is a typical country song, and it did fairly well.
(Patsy) ♪ The first scene was the church, then the altar ♪ ♪ Where we claimed each other, with tears of joy we cried ♪ ♪ Our friends wished us luck there forever ♪ ♪ As we walked from the church, side by side ♪ (Owen) She was a terrific singer, probably sang more pop than she did country, and that was a problem.
She was gonna make pop records, she should've gone to New York or Hollywood or Chicago or someplace.
♪ Then I heard the judge make his decision ♪ ♪ And no longer were we man and wife ♪ (Brenda) When Patsy started out with wearing the cowgirl fringed outfits, I think she was just looking at her idols and trying to emulate what they did, and Patsy couldn't afford to buy the fancy cowboy outfits.
(Julie) Mom would design clothes and my grandmother would make 'em.
She was a wonderful seamstress.
(Patsy) ♪ A church, a courtroom, and then goodbye ♪ (applause) (Ernest) Oh, there's Patsy Cline.
Honey, that was real, real wonderful.
(Patsy) Thank you so much, Ernest.
(narrator) April 1956, Patsy had her third recording session with Owen, and her path would cross with another special someone.
(Patsy) ♪ I've loved and lost again ♪ ♪ Oh, what a crazy world we're livin' in ♪ (Brenda) Patsy was singing at a club, and a good-looking young guy came up and asked her if she wanted to dance.
And she said, "No, I'm working, I don't dance."
But that guy was Charlie Dick.
I started going to dances and I started going to the one in Maryville, Virginia, at the Army where this group called the Kountry Krackers were playing.
And we went there for a long time before I ever seen Patsy.
Because then she came-- she was on The Jimmy Dean Show in Washington the same time, and she came in there and started working for them on Friday nights and doing the Dean Show on Saturday night.
(Brenda) Patsy and Charlie, who both liked to have fun and loved music, Charlie especially loved Patsy's music, became a couple.
(Patsy) ♪ Don't seem to matter anymore ♪ (Melvin) My brother said--told my mother, "I'm gonna bring Patsy Cline home tonight."
And I think she didn't believe it.
She'd seen her on TV.
They were very well-suited, because they were both from this side of town.
They weren't dirt poor, but they didn't have a lot, so they had that whole complete thing in common.
He dropped out of school at an early age, she dropped out of school at a fairly early age.
They both had mothers, did not have fathers.
♪ I've loved and lost again ♪ (Melvin) They both liked to be on the run all the time.
Her first husband, Gerald Cline, kind of liked her to be more of a homebody, but as soon as Charlie met her, if she said, "Let's go here or there," he had the car running before she could get out to the car.
(Patsy) ♪ They'll tell you you're out of style ♪ I noticed her record collection, she had records of about every female you could think of.
Kay Starr was a very big influence, Sophie Tucker, she had some of her records, which were naughty records at the time, but she tried 'em all.
♪ I've loved and lost again ♪ (narrator) Patsy gets a letter from an eager fan asking to start a fan club and replies, "I am 23 years of age, stand five feet, five and a half inches, weigh 135 pounds, and have brown hair and eyes.
My favorite foods are chicken and spaghetti.
Also, I collect salt and pepper shakers and earrings.
P.S.
I don't have a fan club, and would you send me the information on just what it does?"
By the end of 1955, Patsy and the country music community were faced with the onslaught of rock and roll.
Bill Haley and the Comets were at number one with "Rock Around the Clock," doo-wop was on its way out, Chuck Berry and Little Richard were making their way into our living rooms.
(Eddie) In the mid-'50s, rock and roll starts taking over, and country music loses a lot of its audience.
(Alan) When Elvis hit, people here in town said, "We've gotta do something to try to make our music more acceptable to a wider audience."
The response to that was, "Well, okay, if we've lost this bit of the core audience, we need to find some other folks who will pay attention to this music."
And they did that by leaning towards pop music, by taking some steel guitars out and putting some string sections and heavy backing vocal choruses in, and they created what was called the Nashville sound.
Patsy Cline was well-suited to that sound.
In the '50s, there was a show called Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, and it was kind of like the American Idol of the day.
People would come and perform and there would be audience reaction to decide who won.
Patsy got the call.
Could she be in New York the following Monday?
So naturally, she said yes and her mother was gonna act as her talent scout.
(announcer) Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.
(applause) (Julie) Arthur Godfrey's people did not want family to be there as a representative, so you had to have a manager.
So they kinda fibbed, and my grandmother introduced her friend that she had brought along, and no one ever asked a question.
(soft music) ♪ I go out walkin' after midnight ♪ ♪ Out in the moonlight just like we used to do ♪ ♪ I'm always walkin' after midnight ♪ ♪ Searchin' for you ♪ (Beverly Keel) It was a female producer who said, you know, "Let's get rid of the cowgirl look and get you in something more sophisticated, sleeker, which would appeal to the people between New York and LA.
(Beverly D'Angelo) I do think that that was her big break in that it portrayed a visual, you know, of Patsy that said, "I'm not just the girl in the fringy cowgirl outfit.
There's more."
♪ I stop to see a weepin' willow ♪ ♪ Cryin' on his pillow ♪ ♪ Maybe he's cryin' for me ♪ ♪ And as the sky turns gloomy, night winds whisper to me ♪ ♪ I'm lonesome as I can be ♪ ♪ I go out walkin' after midnight ♪ ♪ Out in the starlight ♪ ♪ Just hopin' you may be somewhere a-walkin' after midnight ♪ ♪ Searchin' for me ♪ ♪ I stop to see a weepin' willow ♪ ♪ Cryin' on his pillow ♪ ♪ Maybe he's cryin' for me ♪ ♪ And as the sky turns gloomy, night winds whisper to me ♪ ♪ I'm lonesome as I can be ♪ ♪ I go out walkin' after midnight ♪ ♪ Out in the starlight ♪ ♪ Just hopin' you may be somewhere a-walkin' after midnight ♪ ♪ Searchin' for me ♪ (applause) (dramatic music) (applause) (narrator) Owen and Patsy's collaboration proved the Nashville sound worked.
(Alan) Decca hadn't even released the song yet.
They had to rush release it.
(Judy Sue) She won the Arthur Godfrey Show, and she earns, in this short period of time, $10,000.
So what does she do?
She gives it all to her mother.
So with that $10,000, Hilda pays the mortgage of the house here, 608 South Kent Street.
(Patsy) ♪ After midnight, searchin' for you ♪ (narrator) "Walkin'" climbs to number three on the country charts and to number 16 on the pop charts.
(Reba) I've done "Walkin' After Midnight."
You just can't do it like Patsy.
I mean, it's your own rendition, but you know when somebody starts singing one of those songs, "Oh, that's a Patsy song."
That's one of the first songs I started singing of hers, you know?
I would be eight or nine years old on the Opry with, like, my super country outfit.
(Terri) ♪ I go out walkin' after midnight ♪ Her becoming a pop sensation was huge, because nobody had done that in country.
It was called Country and Western up until that point.
♪ After midnight, searchin' for you ♪ (narrator) Her career was coming together, but her marriage to Gerald had fallen apart.
(Charlie) When I met Patsy, it was in April of '56, and just about the time we got everything squared away and she was gonna get her divorce and all that, then she was in Nashville.
I won't forget, she was down here and she was staying at June Carter's house.
And I came home one day and found some greetings from the president of the United States.
He said he wanted my body in North Carolina.
(narrator) With Charlie drafted, Patsy heads to Nashville to record the new album.
(TV host) And here with a brand new tune called "Three Cigarettes" is pretty Miss Patsy Cline.
(mellow music) ♪ ♪ Two cigarettes in an ashtray ♪ ♪ My love and I in a small cafe ♪ ♪ ♪ Then a stranger came along ♪ ♪ And everything went wrong ♪ ♪ Now there's three cigarettes in the ashtray ♪ (Margo) "Three cigarettes in the ashtray," it just paints such a great visual.
Just talking about a plain object, you know?
If it was a painter doing still life, she nailed that.
♪ And his love is no longer my own ♪ (Judy Sue) 1957, three wonderful things happened to Patsy: The Arthur Godfrey Show, the final papers, she's divorced from Gerald, and she marries Charlie.
♪ And watch one cigarette burn away ♪ (narrator) Trapped in a bad record deal, the hit didn't translate to cash into Patsy's pocket.
The road provided the only viable means to earn a living.
(Rhiannon) The fact that she could record a hit like "Walkin' After Midnight" and not seeing a really good chunk of that money, I mean, that's been the problem with the industry from the beginning.
At that time that Patsy's income was probably half that of many of the male artists of that day.
She didn't get what she really deserved as a performer.
♪ And watch one cigarette burn away ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ (narrator) Broke but happy, Patsy and Charlie get married, and she rounds out the year as her career gains traction.
(Charlie) While I was in the Army and after Patsy's divorce became final, I took furlough and came home and we got married September the 15th, 1957 in Winchester at Patsy's mother's house.
We had a real nice home, quiet wedding, but then a nice party after.
(lively music) ♪ ♪ Now, come on in, sit right down ♪ ♪ And make yourself at home ♪ ♪ If I had one wish, I wish I could go back to my old neighborhood ♪ ♪ Where the good folks, they all love you as their own ♪ The song that always breaks the ice with the audience, which is one of my favorite songs, was the song called "Come On In" and sit right down and make yourself at home.
It breaks the ice, and everybody seems to relax and say, "Hey, I'm a part of this!
I'm with her!
That's what this is about!"
♪ I wish that I could hear them say ♪ ♪ In the good old-fashioned, friendly way ♪ ♪ "Come on in and sit right down and make yourself at home" ♪ (Ricky) I don't see how you can stand up there and deliver something so emotively as she did and not believe it.
'Cause if she did, she's a damn fine actress, you know?
♪ Have them for his own ♪ ♪ If I'd go back to hear them pray ♪ ♪ In the little pine church, they all would say ♪ ♪ Come on in and sit right down and make yourself at home ♪ We were living closer to the Army base where Dad was, and Mom had come home for me to be born, and then Dad had a few days off and was there.
When he got out of the Army, we came back to Winchester for just a little while.
We ended up in Nashville when I was about a year old.
(Patsy) ♪ Now, come on in, sit right down and make yourself at home ♪ (applause) (Charlie) We decided we would come to Nashville, but we didn't have any money.
When I got out of the Army, Patsy was getting an allotment check of $137 a month.
I got out a month early, and the first month after I got out, she still got the check.
So we didn't think nothing about them, when we first started getting it, it started a month late or whatever, so we spent it.
And then a next check came.
So we ended up, including the one we spent, we had seven checks.
Well, after the first one, we didn't spend 'em, 'cause we knew damn well they weren't ours.
And then when we decided we was gonna move to Nashville, we ran to the bank and cashed all of them at one time and took off.
Patsy came to Music City.
The doors weren't just flying open for her to come in and try to wow everybody.
There was a bit of a good ol' boy network.
(Wanda) In the early days that I came along, women weren't headliners.
It was really a man's field, and if they had women at all, it was just one.
Never more than one on a bill.
You can't push back unless you've got the goods, and especially in a good ol' boy network.
(Patsy) ♪ Come on, Dad, get with the jive ♪ ♪ Let's let 'em know that we're alive ♪ ♪ Until the break of dawn, we'll yell for more, more, more ♪ (Ray) You never would be offensive and start a situation, but you didn't walk on her.
Very, very--a strong woman.
I mean, she just-- that was just what you saw when you saw Patsy Cline, strong.
Her voice was strong, her attitude was strong, and I wouldn't want to go against her any way.
(laughing) There's a lot of people who can sing, but not connect, and she was this kind of storyteller that connected with that back row and was able to make that person feel like she was singing it to them.
I think I got a job about three days after we got down here, so that gave us eatin' money anyhow.
And the only work Patsy got then was occasionally she'd get a guest shot on the Opry.
♪ Dance from two to three and then a half past four ♪ (Charlie) The only other work was mostly long tours, 'cause we didn't have interstates, and people didn't run back in over the weekends.
When you left, by God, you was gone, and they're 30-, 40-day tours.
And they averaged between $50 and $100 a day, which at 30 days, you had a little money, but you gotta pay all your expenses out there.
(Patsy) ♪ Tell me that it's time to rock ♪ ♪ Gotta lot of rhythm in my soul ♪ Part of the arrangement was that Mr. McCall, who was in charge of 4 Star, would send us all this material, and then we could pick any of the songs out of that stack, whatever it was.
If they were good, that was good, if they were bad, well, you picked the best four out of the bad stack or whatever.
Ninety percent of the records that we made with her were flops.
The songs were not good, and they were trying to make 'em into something better than they were.
(Patsy) ♪ Gotta lot of rhythm in my soul ♪ (applause) (narrator) By the end of the year, 4 Star still owed her money, but new manager Randy Hughes was prepared to make some changes.
(Charlie) She wanted to be on the Opry bad.
And back then, you gotta have a hit song to get on.
And we came down here and, you know, it was pretty cliquey in Nashville.
But she didn't give a damn, she was gonna go after it anyhow and try.
(soft music) ♪ The Opry was the holy grail, it still is to people like me.
To be a Grand Ole Opry star was the highest honor any country music singer could have.
(Charlie) She did a guest shot on Friday night and two shots on Saturday night, she might've gotten $25.
(narrator) But on one of her appearances, she was reprimanded for her choice in wardrobe.
(man) Patsy Cline, come here, honey!
-Yes, sir!
-Lord, help, where'd you get those pants?
(Leann) I think I wore pants to the first time I played the Opry.
(laughing) I think I did!
I was like, maybe it was just-- it was in honor of her and I didn't even know it.
She's one of my favorites, Patsy Cline.
(Eddie) She had the style and the charisma and the sound.
She had it, oh, yeah.
(Charlie) We were just really waiting out, biding our time to get out of that 4 Star contract, and then hopefully we'd find somebody that wanted to give her a better contract.
But see, she hadn't had any offers from anybody else either.
So we were tryin' to get out of a bad contract, but we don't know if we're gonna get into a better one yet.
(Bill) Most of us were so desperate to get a record deal, we would probably all sign the same deal.
♪ How can I face tomorrow when I know I'm losing you ♪ (Harold) My brother became the vice president of Decca, and he didn't think that Patsy would sign with him because they had all flops other than "Walkin' After Midnight," and he came in and told everyone, "I just got a call from Patsy Cline.
She says if we'll give her $1,000, we'll sign with her."
I thought she would probably-- she could go with any label she wanted to, and I said, "I'm thrilled that she wants to stay."
♪ But I can't claim your heart ♪ (Ray) I'd say she was more excited about her career than anything else when she finally started getting paid.
When she got that first advance, that was the happiest one person I ever saw.
♪ How can I face tomorrow when I know I'm losing you ♪ ♪ Patsy Cline and Owen Bradley were a match made in musical heaven, for sure, if not actual heaven.
(mellow music) ♪ ♪ I fall to pieces ♪ (humming) ♪ Each time I see you again ♪ (Alan) Patsy was one of the first ones to really start mining the great songwriters in Nashville, guys like Hank Cochran, Willie Nelson, Harlan Howard.
(Harlan) Hank Cochran and I wrote a song called "I Fall to Pieces."
for Patsy.
Hank and I took it to Owen Bradley.
(Hank) Owen thought it was a hit, but Patsy didn't like it.
We got to know each other by then, and I was then sure to cut it, that I thought it was a hit, and we more or less, all of us I guess, talked her into cutting it.
(Owen) Then she came in to record.
We now were able to record anything that we felt was a good song.
So that's what we started doing, and then we didn't have-- we had our own stack now, we didn't have anybody to blame it on.
♪ You walk by and I fall to pieces ♪ (Rhiannon) She sang the hell out of anything that she had her hands on, and to me, that is a very, very hard thing to do to make people think that you wrote that song.
That's a Patsy Cline song, it's not a Hank Cochran song, and that is the mark of an artist.
♪ I fall to pieces ♪ (humming) ♪ Time only adds to the flame ♪ ♪ You tell me to find... ♪ (narrator) Baby Julie was a year and a half old now, and Randy Hughes was doing his job.
With a couple of hits under her belt, Patsy took to the road again that spring with a vengeance.
(Peter) A couple of hits meant that she got to be kinda lower middle class, and she was excited about that.
To her, it felt like she was living a creative life and getting some stability from that, it was the best of both worlds.
♪ You walk by and I fall to pieces ♪ (cheering) (solemn music) (narrator) But her ascent is abruptly cut short.
Patsy is in a car accident and spends a month in the hospital recovering.
(Peter) The car wreck for most anyone else would've been a career ender.
She could've died.
She had terrible scarring, she had chronic pain after that, and that would've been the point at which most people would've said, "Okay, I've kinda-- I've had enough."
After the accident, she came in to my office, and she really looked a little rough, because it had been a tough accident.
She had had an injury somewhere around her forehead.
(narrator) Steadfast, determined, and still on crutches, she appears on the Opry stage to reassure her fans.
(Owen) The good part was is she had a hit, and it was really going great.
She came in and stuck her head in the door and said, "I don't ever want to record again," said, "I just want to enjoy this one for the rest of my life."
And that's when she told me that she only did that song because I liked it.
By September 8th, Patsy turns 29, has two kids, and Charlie has quit his day job to support their musical career.
(Alan) Charlie had to kind of be the stay-at-home dad.
That was pretty unique at that time.
I don't think people did that.
(Charlie) She had a recording session and usually I stayed home with 'em at night.
Because of the 26-week commitment, we had to be at the Opry, so we'd maybe go out to eat occasionally, but then we'd go to the Opry and maybe walk across the alley to Tootsies between shows.
So our social life became probably the Grand Ole Opry and Tootsies.
(Willie) ♪ Crazy ♪ ♪ Crazy for feelin' so lonely ♪ (acoustic guitar music) ♪ I'm crazy ♪ ♪ Crazy for feeling so blue ♪ (Terri) Talk about how an artist can make a song their own.
When you hear Willie's version and you hear her version, she just had a way of taking a song and just putting a whole new spin on it.
(Willie) ♪ I'm crazy for tryin', crazy for cryin' ♪ ♪ And I'm crazy for lovin' you ♪ It'd be cool to see Willie and Patsy get to sing their song together.
(Patsy) ♪ Crazy ♪ ♪ I'm crazy for feelin' so lonely ♪ (mellow music) ♪ I'm crazy ♪ ♪ Crazy for feelin' so blue ♪ (Mickey) The fact that the song still to this day resonates with so many people, it's insane, really, to think that a song lives on for so long.
Singing for the president at the White House was one of the scariest moments of my life.
That was one of my first official televised performances ever, and to have to sing Patsy Cline's song was like that much more nerve-racking.
♪ Worry, why do I let myself worry ♪ (vocalizing) ♪ Wonderin' what in the world did I do ♪ (Leann) It all has to do with emotion and really being able to embody that, no matter if you can hit a high note or if you sound like crap.
If I believe you, if I believe you, that's what it's all about, and she was incredibly believable.
♪ ♪ I'm crazy for tryin' ♪ ♪ And crazy for cryin' ♪ ♪ And I'm crazy for lovin' you ♪ ♪ Crazy ♪ ♪ For thinkin' that my love could hold you ♪ ♪ I'm crazy for tryin' ♪ ♪ And crazy for cryin' ♪ ♪ And I'm crazy for lovin' you ♪ ♪ (man) Oh, yes!
Letter after letter after letter, you hear about her coming off the road and having played all these shows for fans and then walking into the house and having to hurry and fix dinner or hurry and attend to all of these domestic duties.
She certainly didn't have people doing that kind of stuff for her.
We didn't know anything about tour buses or nannies on the road or entourages and all this stuff.
(Patsy) ♪ You made me love you ♪ (narrator) 1962 was a big year, touring, charting, and multiple awards.
She dethrones Kitty Wells for the second year in a row, started out with a number one hit, and released her third album.
"Crazy" flew to the top of the charts.
They get a check from Decca for $22,000 and put a down payment on their dream house.
A rare gig for country acts, she performs with Johnny Cash at the Hollywood Bowl.
Radio DJs are playing her music, and as the year comes to an end, Randy Hughes has her booked into The Mint casino in Las Vegas for an unprecedented 35 nights and a good salary.
(Patsy) ♪ ...times, dear, you made me feel... ♪ (Carl) I used to work at the Golden Nugget quite a bit back in those years, and Patsy was working a place directly across the street called The Mint.
Oh, it was hard.
We used to have to do six shows a day, 40-45 minutes on, a 15-minute break, and right back on, and I'd run across the street, jumping across cab hoods and runnin' in front of scenic buses, trying to get over there to hear a song or two from Patsy during my break.
(Patsy) ♪ Give me, give me, give me ♪ (narrator) True to her nature, when a DJ friend died unexpectedly, Patsy reworked her schedule so she could perform in a benefit concert to help his family.
(Charlie) I know when Patsy had had the car accident, the people in our neighborhood went out and took up money for us, to help us, 'cause we were down on our butts.
And I mean, she had always been like that, but I think that made her remember more that you always help your fellow man, and I think that's why she was glad to go out and do that.
There was bad weather, and it rained even on the day we were doing the show, but still there was a great big crowd and we did two shows.
Anyway, the last thing that I said to Patsy was, "I'm really gonna be worried about you flying in this weather."
She said, "Don't worry about me, Hoss, when it's my time to go, it's my time."
(narrator) After waiting for storms to pass, Patsy's plane takes off from Dyersburg, Tennessee, to get her home to her family in Nashville.
(vocalizing) (Charlie) There was bad weather between here and there, and we didn't know, and then as time went on, we knew they had to be either on the ground or they'd had problems.
(announcer) Ladies and gentlemen, in all my 30 years on radio, this is the hardest job I have ever had to do.
And it pains me greatly to announce that Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, and Randy Hughes, flying from Kansas City to Nashville, have crashed in the area of Camden, Tennessee.
After an all-night search involving bad weather, violent weather, the plane has finally been located and all aboard have perished.
(somber music) I didn't find out anything for sure until... as I recall, the radio.
Nobody ever called me and said that they'd found the plane or the plane was down.
I think I'd gone in and laid across the bed with the kids, 'cause I'd been up all night, and was laying there about half dozing, and Grant or T. Tommy or somebody came on the air and said that they'd found the plane and no survivors.
♪ (narrator) Patsy's tragic passing left an indelible void felt through her cherished Opry stage and the studio where the magic was made.
A month after her death, "Sweet Dreams" is released, leaving her fans longing for what might have been.
(Patsy) ♪ Sweet dreams of you ♪ (Owen) After the session, we played the album back, and Patsy was very proud of 'em, and that's really the last time that I saw her.
(Patsy) ♪ Why can't I forget you ♪ ♪ And start my life anew ♪ (Reba) "Sweet Dreams" is a song that I recorded because I was such a huge fan of Patsy Cline, and I would end the show with that, a cappella.
(Patsy) ♪ You don't love me, it's plain ♪ (Beverly D'Angelo) She brought a dignity to a woman's feelings, you know?
I think that the way that she sang with such feeling and with such dignity allowed any woman to feel, "You know what, I am important.
My feelings do count."
It's just that type of song, the first time you hear it, it just touches your heart, and probably everybody's been in that situation one time or another in their life.
(vocalizing) (Patsy) ♪ Why can't I forget the past ♪ ♪ Start loving someone new ♪ ♪ Instead of having sweet dreams about you ♪ (narrator) Charlie and Julie would accept Patsy's awards for the new album, but as time moves on, the hits fade.
Charlie remarries and builds a family.
(Julie) We were pretty normal.
There wasn't anything special about us growing up and knowing that your mom was an icon.
I honestly went to a 10-year high school reunion and had people tell me that they never knew that my mom was a singer.
Not just my stepmom, they never knew that my mother was Patsy Cline.
(Jewly) It's not a given that an artist and their music will be canonized, will be remembered.
Many more artists are forgotten than are remembered.
(Patsy) ♪ Now there's no more baby, baby ♪ (Alan) She was the first solo female artist inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973.
So that says something about how important she was.
Patsy Cline the character, you know, really mattered in the Loretta Lynn biopic, Coal Miner's Daughter.
(Patsy) ♪ All night long ♪ (Beverly D'Angelo) When I was cast as Patsy Cline, I was still thinking I was gonna be a singer.
The way I figured out who she was was by listening to her sing.
I'm sure that she had some sense of what she achieved before she died, and I didn't get any impression that she was dissatisfied or frustrated by her career.
I was only four and a half when she died, my brother was only two.
When Coal Miner's Daughter came out, it brought Mom back into the world, back to the attention of a lot of people, and it did kinda change things.
(narrator) Five years after Coal Miner's Daughter, Hollywood put its spin on Patsy and Charlie's love story.
("Patsy") I mean, since I've been about 11 or 12 years old, I've had my life mapped out.
I've been pushed too hard these last four or five years, but I'm gonna start next year.
("Charlie") I'm startin' next year, too.
To me, she symbolized a woman who was not a victim.
She symbolized a woman who could speak for herself and tell you how she felt with all her dignity intact, and that's not a victim, even if horrible things happen to her.
-Hello, Patsy.
-Hi, Mr. Bradley.
("Owen") What's the frown for, honey?
Randy tellin' me you've been worrying again.
Don't ever frown, you make yourself old before your time.
-I know, but I wanted to talk-- -No, now listen to me.
Everything's all right!
We had a very cordial relationship, and it was not necessarily like the movie.
(clattering) ("Charlie") You wanna start on the living room?
(laughing) ("Patsy") Charlie, look what you've done!
I had the privilege, I think, of seeing Patsy soften.
Because I did see kind of the harder side with some rough edges, but the last time I saw her was different.
I wish very much I could've known her better.
I think I'd have had a good girlfriend.
Time and revisionist history has created the myth of Patsy Cline that really overshadows her achievements, because the myth was that she was this international icon rolling in money, that everything came easy.
And the reality was driving in places, many, many hours in cars, changing in back seats.
The actual Patsy Cline is far more impressive than the mythical Patsy Cline.
(Patsy) ♪ Crazy ♪ ♪ I'm crazy for... ♪ (Julie) One of the things that came about was a play, and it was a play called Always...
Patsy Cline.
The good thing about it was it was taken from actual events of one person.
One person Mom had met on the road, one friend she had made.
Patsy had played one night at a big honky tonk called the Esquire Ballroom.
And then with a little more research, I found an interview with a lady named Louise Seger.
Patsy spent the night with Louise, Louise drove her to the airport, and they became pen pals.
Got to meet her.
She came to the show early, early on, and me and Tere, Tere Myers, who portrayed Louise, we went out and partied with her several times, and you could see how Patsy would've liked her and why she went home with her that night and they had bacon and eggs and talked all night.
Totally made sense.
This show has been one of the most produced musicals in America.
I think her music, it just stands up today.
(in unison) ♪ Come on in and sit right down and make yourself at home ♪ It's actually a good example of what Mom was like with her fans, because that's not the only story of Mom meeting a fan and then having a friendship that lasts.
(narrator) Long after she died, Patsy's accomplishments continued to penetrate pop culture.
(Patsy) ♪ Down by the riverside ♪ ♪ Down by the riverside ♪ (Beverly D'Angelo) Not only was her career over at such a young age, even within her career, she took big hiatuses.
Got married and had kids and took a break and then came back, she had an accident, came back.
When one goes to evaluate the value of a song catalogue, they look at what they consider primarily the standards.
The songs that are considered songs for all time.
Patsy created a dozen songs for all time.
They became standards, they became evergreens.
People might not know just what a complex person and artist she was, because she was navigating all of these things that weren't laid out before her.
She was having to figure it out, and did, in fact, figure it out.
(Kacey) Especially a young girl coming up in a really tough industry and having her own sound, her own look, her own voice that was different than anybody else.
(Leann) Maybe she just wasn't done yet and was, you know, her music is very influential in its sound, and her voice was very distinctive.
It is kind of fascinating, though, that some people's music, talented as they can be, gets kind of left with that generation and then some gets carried on.
Fifty, sixty years after these songs were a hit, national brands still come to us to license songs like "Crazy" and "I Fall to Pieces" or "Sweet Dreams."
American advertisers and brands understand the value of Patsy Cline's music.
(Mandy) Patsy was always a scrapper.
I think she had to get out there and just really fight for everything that she had, so that's all she knew was just to get it done.
(Rhiannon) The combination of the way that she was raised, how she became successful, the tragic nature of her death, the way that she conducted her life, which is very much, you know, very American, can-do, individualistic.
(Dottie) My God, she sings like an angel and she looks like one, and she did close the show, because she was the star.
If she had never had a hit record and never got to the Grand Ole Opry or Carnegie Hall or any place you can name, she would still have been singing somewhere.
(Patsy) And boy, you'll never know what it meant for this old gal to know that there was that many people left on this good old Earth that still think of me once in a while, and I sincerely appreciate it.
(vocalizing) (upbeat rock music) ♪ (male singer) ♪ When Patsy Cline was crazy ♪ ♪ When Patsy Cline was crazy ♪ ♪ When Patsy Cline was crazy ♪ ♪
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