Country Music Legend of the Week, Patsy Cline [VIDEOS]

She is considered to be one of the most influential, successful, and acclaimed female vocalists of the 20th century.

Prior to her death at the age of 30 in a private plane crash, she was at the height of her career.

Patsy Cline (September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963), born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who was successful in pop music crossovers during the early 1960s era of the Nashville Sound.

Posthumously, millions of her records were sold over a 50-year span. As a result, she has been given numerous awards and accolades, leading some fans to view her as an icon similar to legends such as Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Ten years after her death, in 1973, she became the first female solo artist inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1999, she was voted number 11 on VH1's special, The 100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll, by members and artists of the rock industry.

I Fall To Pieces

Cline's first release for Decca was the country pop ballad "I Fall to Pieces" (1961), written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. The song was promoted across both country and pop music stations around the country, garnering the first Number One of her career.

Crazy

Cline's recording of  "Crazy" was named the number one jukebox hit of all time; "I Fall to Pieces" came in at No. 17. In 1998, she was nominated to The Hollywood Walk of Fame by a dedicated fan, and received her star in 1999; later a street was named after her on the back lot of Universal Studios.

She's Got You

Written by Hank Cochran.  Cochran pitched the song over the phone to Cline and she fell in love with it at first listen. The song was released as a single in January 1962, and soon became yet another country pop crossover hit, reaching No. 14 on the pop charts, No. 3 on the adult contemporary charts and as her second and final chart-topper, reached No. 1 on the country chart once again.

Walkin' After Midnight

Written by Donn Hecht and Alan Block. Cline initially did not like the song because it was, according to her, "just a little old pop song." However, the song's writers and record label insisted that she should record it. "Walkin' After Midnight" reached No. 2 on the country chart and No. 12 on the pop chart.

Patsy Cline died in "one of the worst wrecks in the country" on March 5, 1963, along with her manager Randy Hughes and long-time country musicians Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas.

The plane flew into severe weather, and according to Cline's wristwatch, recovered at the scene, crashed at approximately 6:20 p.m. in a forest outside of Camden, Tennessee, only 90 miles (140 km) from Nashville.

Forensic examinations performed after the fact concluded that everyone aboard had been killed instantaneously from their injuries and did not suffer.  Until the wreckage was discovered through the mists of the following dawn and reported on the radio, friends and family had never given up hope of survival, with phones around the close-knit Nashville music community buzzing with worry.

Endless repetitions of calls such as "Did you hear anything?" "No, did you?" tied up the local telephone exchanges to such a degree that other emergencies occurring over the same period had trouble getting attended to. The lights at the destination Cornelia Fort Airpark were kept on throughout the night as reports of the missing plane were broadcast on radio and TV.

Friends Dottie West, June Carter Cash, and Loretta Lynn recalled Cline telling them during 1962–1963 that she felt a sense of impending doom and did not expect to live much longer.  Cline, known for her generosity, began giving away personal items to friends, writing out her will on Delta Air Lines stationery and asking close friends to care for her children if anything should happen to her.

She told Jordanaires back-up singer Ray Walker as she exited the Grand Ole Opry a week before her death: "Honey, I've had two bad ones (accidents). The third one will either be a charm or it'll kill me."