B: Virginia Patterson Hensley
September 8th , 1932
Soulful Country Singer from Winchester, Virginia, who blazed the trail for Country Crossover Music in the late 50s and early 1960s. Her mesmerizing voice and stunning good looks helped bring Pop fans to enjoy
Country music styling, and she is the most sucessful female Country Crossover singer in recorded music history. Cline's music evokes feeling and heartache, as her most famous tunes "Crazy", "I Fall To Pieces", and "
Sweet Dreams", represent, but her recording career, although brief, ran the gamut from sheer Pop to Rockabilly to Country and
Western Swing to Gospel and all things between. Patsy Cline was not a songwriter although penned one song "Stranger In My Arms", under her birth name Virginia Patterson Hensley. She was known to play guitar and piano as well. Her life was cut short on March 5th, 1963, in a plane crash- along with 2 other Grand 'Ol Opry Stars and her manager. Patsy's music remains tragically hip, and unlike other singers of that time, her voice has a modern appeal that is timeless, and her deep rich tone is a contrast to the flat twangs made popular by some of the other Country Music Artists.
