by The Patsy Cline Historic House in Winchester, Va., was the home of the country music legend for five years, 1948-1953, when she was 16 until her first marriage at age 21.
Born Virginia Patterson Hensley (known as Ginny), she moved with her brother and parents many times in Virginia before they settled in a four-room log home on S. Kent Street in Winchester.
Cline had just begun to work professionally as a singer in local venues at the time that the Hensleys moved to the home, and her abusive father had also left the family less than a year before.
In 1953, with her career on the ascendancy, Ginny met and married Gerald Cline while touring with local country bandleader Bill Peer. Peer suggested “Patsy” as a catchy stage name, and so with the addition of her new married name, Ginny Hensley became Patsy Cline.
Cline went on to score several chart-topping hits, and is recognized as one of the musical artist to cross over from the country charts to pop. Among her many hits are Walkin’ After Midnight, I Fall To Pieces, Crazy, and Back In Baby’s Arms. In 1985, Jessica Lange portrayed Cline in the 1985 Academy Award-nominated biopic Sweet Dreams.
The home features a collection of artifacts related to Cline’s career. She remained close with her mother even after moving to Nashville and becoming a major country star; her mother even continued to make cowgirl outfits in which Cline would perform!
Sadly, Cline would pass away in 1963 when a plane carrying her and two other performers, and piloted by her manager, crashed in Tennessee during a storm.
She was buried at Shenandoah Memorial Park in Winchester, Virginia. The inscription on her gravestone reads:
VIRGINIA H. DICK
PATSY CLINE
DEATH CANNOT KILL WHAT NEVER DIES: LOVE
60 years after her death, fans still come to pay their respects at her grave as evidenced by the collection of coins and flowers on her marker. When we visited the cemetery, we were approached by a man who was having trouble finding her grave, and were thankfully able to direct him to the location.
Patsy’s second husband Charlie Dick passed in 1985 and is interred beside her. In the 1980s, fans erected a memorial bell tower in Patsy’s honor in a different section of the cemetery as another final honor to the beloved performer.
