Patsy’s Home May House Museum By: Stephanie K. Moran The Winchester Star The house in which Patsy Cline spent many of her Winchester years may become a museum dedicated to her memory and music. The home at 608 S. Kent St. would have an “aura of Patsy being there,” Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc. President Jim Stutzman Jr. said late last week. The concept of setting up the house as a museum is a change of direction for CPC. The group had approached Winchester City Council in June with an idea to transform the former Solenberger hardware building on the Loudoun Street Mall into a museum dedicated to the country music legend and Winchester native. “That didn’t work out, for various reasons,” said Stutzman from his cluttered-but-comfortable office at his car dealership on Valley Avenue. The group went “back to the drawing board” and decided that using the house as a museum would be a great fit. “The home of Patsy Cline is something that nobody else can say (they have),” Stutzman said. In early 2001, a division of the locally-based Adams Cos. bought the home, along with one at 133 E. Monmouth St. that was later owned by Cline’s mother, Hilda Hensley. Kevin Adams, who headed the company, had also served as president of CPC. He passed away in February 2001. The modest home, where Cline lived from the late 1940s through 1957, was the base from which she kicked off her career. Her first big hit, “Walkin’ After Midnight,” came in 1957. The home-based museum could include not only some of Cline’s possessions, but era-specific items and oral histories, along with whatever modern technological perks may be utilized, Stutzman said. The museum also will help create a brand for Winchester as the home of Patsy Cline — a brand no other city can boast. Stutzman said he thinks the museum will bring tourists to Winchester and play a part in the revitalization of the city’s downtown. A report from consultant John Gerner projected about 50,000 people would visit a Cline museum on the Loudoun Street Mall, Stutzman said. While that museum doesn’t look like it will happen, Stutzman said he thinks at least 30,000 people annually would visit a museum in her home. Fans walking into the home would be able to experience what it was like when Cline lived there. “That’s what her people want,” Stutzman said. “We need to appeal to Patsy’s fans. “This’ll be Patsy.” Cline’s fans are everywhere, and they frequently stop in Winchester, said CPC Treasurer and Chamber of Commerce’s Visitors Bureau Manager Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf. “A day did not go by (this past year) that we did not have Patsy people in here,” she said. Those people make Cline merchandise the best-selling in the bureau, but many of those visitors aren’t always happy with the Patsy Cline attractions they see in Winchester, she said. “They are horrified that there’s nothing here. Absolutely horrified,” Huyett-Kempf said. “They’re insulted, they’re hurt, they’re amazed that somebody as famous as Patsy has nothing.” Both Stutzman and Huyett-Kempf called the lack of Cline attractions “embarrassing.” While bus tours are offered that point out local places of interest in Cline’s life, many fans want more. Huyett-Kempf said when the tour bus pulls up to the South Kent Street house, the reaction is impressive. “They want to get into those houses so bad it’s unreal.” The home represents a great deal in Cline’s life, Huyett-Kempf said. “That was her prime time as far as starting career.” She added, Cline was also something more — “A 16-year-old kid, supporting herself and her family, trying to make a career.” Huyett-Kempf’s dream for the home is similar to Stutzman’s — it would look as it did in the late 1940s to early 1950s. “Let the fans step back with her — step back in time . . . I can see the kitchen, the table, the tablecloths,” said Huyett-Kempf, who also envisions fans being able to hear the voices of people prominent in Cline’s life, such as onetime Winchester entertainer and impresario Jack Fretwell and Kountry Krackers guitarist Bud Armel. Huyett-Kempf said she hopes 2002 will be a good year for the museum effort. “I’ve got my fingers crossed, big time, on both hands,” she said. “We’re way overdue . . . I think she’s been put off long enough.” “It’s disappointing that the leadership of this community (had) not embraced this 30 years ago,” Stutzman said. But three decades later, and almost 39 years after Cline’s tragic death at age 30 in a Tennessee airplane crash, Stutzman said, “It has to happen when the time is right, and I think the time is right. “My hope is that we will have a vision (of the total setup of the museum) and actually start raising money this year.”

Originally Published In The Winchester Star In January 2002







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