The Legacy Lives On

It was 50 years ago today that the world lost a treasure.

On March 5, 1963, the music world was stunned by the deaths of country music stars Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas, and Hawkshaw Hawkins, along with Patsy’s manager, Randy Hughes, who was also the pilot of the plane. The four had been flying back home to Nashville in the midst of inclement weather, and crashed in the forest outside Camden, Tennessee.

 

 

She may have died (at the age of 30) five years before I was born, but the legacy of Patsy Cline has had an impact on my life. I consider her the greatest musical voice to ever grace this planet. Some may not know just how short her musical career actually was (1955-1963), considering how well her musical legacy has stood the test of time.  That legacy includes: “Crazy,” “walkin’ after midnight,” “I fall to pieces,” “a church, a courtroom, and goodbye,” “she’s got you,” “crazy dreams,” “just a closer walk with thee,” and a few of my all-time favorites – “Yes, I understand,” “back in baby’s arms,” and “three cigarettes in an ashtray.”  

If you want to hear the true Patsy Cline experience, take a listen to one of her “live” albums, specifically, “Live at the Cimarron Ballroom,” which was recorded live only about a month after her serious auto accident in 1961.

In 2004, I had the chance to visit the Willie Nelson Museum in Nashville and saw the wristwatch that Patsy was wearing when she died. It had been stopped/broken at 6:35pm – presumably at the time of the crash that ended her life.

In 2011, I visited Patsy’s hometown of Winchester, Virginia, where she was born Virginia Patterson Hensley. I saw the house where she grew up (608. S Kent Street), and the house where she married Charlie Dick (720 S. Kent Street), as well as Patsy’s grave site at Shenandoah Memorial Park (“Death can not kill what never dies. Love”)