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On The Trail of Patsy Cline
Busloads Tour The Area For Glimpse of Singer’s Life By: F.C. Lowe The Winchester Star If you build it, they will come is the theme of the movie, “A Field of Dreams.” In that case, they built a baseball field and legendary players returned to play but not in the realm of reality.
These visitors are very real. They seek some hint of her existence in the town where she was born in 1932 and lived until she made it big in Nashville. And the tour guide, Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf of Berryville, enthusiastically gives them all the information she can about the singer, who perished in a plane crash in 1963. Huyett-Kempf, a member of Celebrating Patsy Cline, calls herself a self-appointed historian for Patsy. Their paths crossed many times, she said. As Miss Apple Blossom, Huyett-Kempf remembers being at the ribbon cutting for the opening of the Ward Plaza shopping center in Winchester in the early ’60s and Patsy was there. She also traveled to Brunswick, Md. where Patsy performed. But she admits the true Patsy fans know more than she does. “They can’t get enough.” This is the eighth tour she has conducted so far this year about Patsy Cline. This busload, about 30 strong from Annapolis, Md., endured very high temperatures recently to visit Cline’s hometown. The first stop on the daylong excursion, was radio station, WINC, where Patsy was a regular in her teen years. The microphone she used when she sang every Saturday is on display for those who seek some glimpse of where she worked.
Borden helped at the dances and recalls Patsy in her early 20s. “She talked to everybody. I loved her voice. It was unusual and unique,” said Borden, a fan for many years who took this opportunity to come back and learn more about Patsy. Another tourist, Howard Smith, 71, said, “I’ve enjoyed her singing for the last 25 years.” Jane Cartney, 75, began her admiration of the singer after seeing, “Sweet Dreams,” the movie that depicted the life of the singer. “She was spunky. She didn’t let life get her down.” As the bus made its way through Winchester, Huyett-Kempf pointed out houses where Patsy and her family lived on South Kent Street. This is the best she can do at this time without a museum, but she informs the group that this will soon change. For real, a museum will be built or established soon in Winchester to honor the performer, whose voice has claimed fans of all ages and has survived many years after her death. They were the first group to find out about the new museum in Winchester, according to Huyett-Kempf. (A formal announcement was made this week giving the location in Winchester, 48 S. Loudoun St.) More information will be forthcoming, Huyett-Kempf said, tied to the official fan club visit during Labor Day weekend. The club converges on the area each year for various activities, centered around the famous singer. And that was all the tour guide would divulge about the long-awaited museum for now. Otherwise, she regaled the visitors with tidbits about Patsy’s life. Stopping the bus near the houses where Patsy and her family had lived, Huyett-Kempf said the singer was a resident on that street when she appeared in the Arthur Godfrey Talent program in 1957 and won with the hit “Walkin’ After Midnight.” The question of the day was about Patsy’s children. Considering the age of the group, averaging about 70, this was understandable as most of them are grandparents and close to the age Patsy would have been.
She was curious about Patsy’s children and asked if they were singers. Huyett-Kempf quickly informed the group of the whereabouts of Patsy’s son, Randy, and daughter, Julie, who are residents of Nashville, and did not follow in their mother’s musical footsteps. Progressing through the streets of Winchester on the bus, the visitors got a feel for what life had been like for Virginia Hensley (Patsy) growing up with a mother who adored her and a father who left the family, including Patsy and a brother and sister. Singing anywhere she could, Patsy tried to juggle starting a career with family obligations. She always kept the goal of becoming a star foremost in her life, said Huyett-Kempf. Going to work to help support the family, Patsy ended up a soda jerk at Gaunt’s Drugstore, within walking distance of her home. Although the soda fountain is long gone, the drugstore still stands and the owner, Harold “Doc” Madagan has filled part of the shop with memorabilia about the singer. He took time from his pharmacy practice to tell the bus travelers what he knows about her time at the drug store, with her voice providing background music of some of her most famous songs. Evidently, Mrs. Gaunt, whose husband was the previous pharmacist, would advise Patsy and try to get her to go back to school (she dropped out to help support the family). Patsy would return occasionally to visit after moving to Nashville, said Madagan, and let Mrs. Gaunt know she was doing fine, according to Madagan. As he pointed out his prized memorabilia, including a copy of the last picture taken of Patsy, he told the group he plans to donate them to the museum. The final photo was taken at a benefit concert in Kansas City. She was returning from that show when the plane went down. Anna Helmly, 69, actually remembers dancing to Patsy’s music in her younger years. “I love her and her music. Her songs have words. Words make you dream, not like the bebop of today.” And the consensus of the group was her songs told stories from the heart, in words that you could understand. Husband and wife, Evelyn, 67, and Kenneth Wood, 70, relate to Patsy in a special way since Evelyn was a soda jerk when she met Kenneth. “I used to play her music on 45s. I remember the words; you can sing with her,” Evelyn said. Her songs also had special meaning to another of the travelers, Joan Augustine Clay, whose father, John Augustine, had a juke box business, City Coin, near Pittsburgh. He helped to promote Patsy’s songs on his music machines. She remembers her dad talking about how Patsy brought her records for him to play in the machines. “If they liked you, they would promote you,” Clay said. Leaving the drug store, the group encountered Phil Hunter, a member of Celebrating Patsy Cline, the organization promoting the singer and working on the museum. He quietly joined in to pass out bumper stickers advertising the museum. Hunter has worked for 10 years to help get things going and now knows it will be a reality. He also passed out information where memorabilia could be found. After all, what is a bus trip without bringing home some souvenirs. This led to a quick stop at A Gift to Remember in Winchester for Patsy souvenirs, including CDs, and then on to her final resting place at Shenandoah Memorial Park, just outside of town in Frederick County. Travel time allowed for some questions from the group, and one of the more humorous was “have there been any Patsy sightings like the Elvis ones?” Huyett-Kempf quickly replied no, but added that Patsy was very fond of Elvis. The final stop on the Patsy segment of the tour, the grave site, is where Virginia H. Dick, “Patsy Cline,” is buried. A spot is left for her husband, Charlie Dick, formerly of Winchester and now a resident of Nashville. The tombstone is fitting for Patsy’s legacy and the bus tours that continue: “Death Cannot Kill What Never Dies.” By this time, it was close to noon. The rest of the tour included historic sites in the area since there were no more Patsy places to visit, Huyett-Kempf said. The group had basically covered it all in a morning. But this will not be the case for long. When the museum is ready, visitors can spend a full day or more finding out about Patsy Cline. And they will surely keep coming by the busloads. |
Originally Published In The Winchester Star On July 14, 2005
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