"My Mother, Mrs. Hilda Hensley, makes all of my clothes, while I design them."
-Patsy Cline
Julie Fudge, Patsy’s firstborn daughter, barely knew her mother, but she and her grandmother, Hilda Hensley, were close. Hilda knew how much Patsy meant to her fans, and she would give each of the favored few one glove (of a pair) of the many long, elegant gloves that went with Patsy’s formal dresse...
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Anyone who knew Phil Whitney knows how he would light up remembering a young girl pressing her face on the studio glass wall inside radio station WINC. It was Virginia Hensley (aka Ginny Hensley).
Whitney managed the station, an ABC affiliate that broadcast only local programming on Saturday mornin...
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Virginia Patterson Hensley became Patsy Cline at the Moose Hall in Brunswick, Maryland. Bandleader Bill Peer had named her Patsy, after his daughter, in September 1952. Her last name changed in March 1953 when she married Gerald Cline.
For the community of Brunswick, which required dance lessons as...
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Patsy loved movies. All her friends tell of this passion.
One July, the Capital Theater in Winchester played Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah. Doors opened at 12:45 p.m., and it ran continuously all day. Children under 12 were charged 35 cents and adults 65 cents for matinees, and $1 fo...
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On Sunday, March 10, 1963, Winchester, Virginia came together to bury Patsy Cline. For that era, when Winchester was still a small town, this was a pretty big event. The police and local newspaper estimated the crowd at 10,000 to 15,000.
Most actually never arrived at the 3 p.m. ceremony, because t...
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Last week, we prepared lunch for and met with Douglas Gomery, a retired professor from the University of Maryland who is working on a book about Patsy's life. He is sharing the proceeds from the sale of the book with our organization to go towards the restoration effort. We met at my mom's house s...
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Julie Fudge, Patsy’s firstborn daughter, barely knew her mother, but she and her grandmother, Hilda Hensley, were close. Hilda knew how much Patsy meant to her fans, and she would give each of the favored few one glove (of a pair) of the many long, elegant gloves that went with Patsy’s formal dresses. Those who received them have a memory that only Julie’s grandmother could bestow.
Patsy had dozens of these gloves, for performances in 1962 at Carnegie Hall and Las Vegas. No longer attired in cowgirl outfits, Patsy wore dresses with gloves that matched the elegance of the cascading violins—not fiddles—of Sweet Dreams. Some of these unique gloves will be displayed during special events held at the Patsy Cline Historic House.
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