Background
Patsy Cline was born on 8 September in 1932 in Winchester, Virginia, United States, a hamlet near Winchester. Her family moved frequently while she was growing up. Remembered by her mother as "a bit high strung and temperamental," the young Virginia sang in the church choir and learned to play piano by ear.
Career
Radio broadcasts of the Grand Ole Opry, the prime showcase for country music, had fired her ambition to be a country singer; when her voice deepened as a result of a bout with rheumatic fever at the age of 13, she was ready to make her move. Within two years she was singing part-time with local bands and had a regular spot on a Winchester radio station. In 1955 she made her first guest appearance at the Opry, in Nashville, Tenn., where she also made her initial recordings with legendary record producer Owen Bradley. Meanwhile, on the advice of Bill Peer, a bandleader and disc jockey, she had changed her stage name to Patsy Hensley, and after she married Gerald Cline in 1953, she had begun performing as Patsy Cline. The name outlasted the marriage. In 1956 she became infatuated with Charlie Dick--a man she described, characteristically, as "a hurricane in pants"--and after Gerald Cline divorced her, she and Dick began their own tempestuous marriage in 1957.
Patsy Cline had already gained crossover exposure in January 1957 when she sang "Walkin' After Midnight" on the nationally televised Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Godfrey hired her as a regular on his daily morning show, which was broadcast from New York City, but she was fired after she quarreled with his staff, who wanted her to sing a steady diet of pop rather than hillbilly. Cline then returned to touring and recording; in 1961, while recuperating from a near-fatal car crash, she had her first number-one country hit, "I Fall to Pieces."
Although she released only three albums during her lifetime--Patsy Cline (1957), Showcase (1961), and Sentimentally Yours (1962)--she had a powerful influence on the development of country music. Cline was the first female country singer to achieve crossover pop success, and the first woman to command full respect and acceptance by the male-dominated country music establishment. She enjoyed embellishing uptempo tunes with yodeling and other vocal flourishes, but her most important recorded legacy was as a singer of ballads, which she performed with passionate intensity. "Walkin' After Midnight" (1957), "I Fall to Pieces" (1961), "Crazy" (1961), and "Sweet Dreams (Of You)" (1963), all produced by Owen Bradley, rank among the greatest country/pop recordings ever released. Her breakthrough opened the gates for Loretta Lynn, Dottie West, Reba McEntire, and k. d. lang, all of whom were influenced by her style.
Patsy Cline died on March 5, 1963, along with two lesser-known country singers, when a plane piloted by her manager, Randy Hughes, went down in foul weather near Camden, Tenn. Several of her finest vocals, including "Sweet Dreams," were released posthumously, and numerous compilation albums have kept her music in circulation since her death. In 1973 she was the first solo woman artist to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Cline has been portrayed on the screen most notably by Jessica Lange, who earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for her performance in the musical biography Sweet Dreams (1985). "Crazy" received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award for 1992; three years later, praising Cline's "plaintive vocal stylings," the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honored her memory with a Lifetime Achievement Award.