'Opry Live' Bows Out From CMT

By: Brian Mansfield, Special for USA TODAY

The Grand Ole Opry soon will have a new television home.

Beginning Oct. 4, Grand Ole Opry Live, the televised one-hour portion of the weekly country music radio show, will move from Country Music Television (CMT) to competitor Great American Country (GAC).

"It's the crown in the country programming business," says GAC president Jeff Wayne. "If there's a single show out there that could drive demand for our network to help us grow, it's Opry Live."

The Opry will lose reach in the switch; GAC is in 25 million U.S. households compared with CMT's 70 million. It will, however, maintain its regular weekly presence and increase the number of repeat telecasts for Grand Ole Opry Live. The show currently airs at 8 p.m. ET live/PT tape each Saturday and will air live at 8 p.m. ET/5 PT when it moves.

Event Honors Cline’s Legacy

By: Kelly Cupp
The Winchester Star

With roses in hand, the tight circle of friends spent a moment in silence honoring the person that had brought them together.

Melvin Dick, brother-in-law of Winchester native and country music star Patsy Cline, told the group gathered around Cline’s grave in Shenandoah Memorial Park that it was a quiet time to reflect amidst all the fun of the past weekend.

About 40 people attended the memorial service for Cline on Sunday.

Cline died in a March 5, 1963, airplane crash near Camden, Tenn.

The memorial helped wrap up a weekend full of Always Patsy fan club activities.

Patsy Cline Route 11 Chips Tins For Sale

Star Staff Report

Route 11 Potato Chips commemorative Patsy Cline tins, commissioned to raise funds for the proposed Patsy Cline museum, went on sale Monday.

The limited edition tin portrays Cline in six photos from different eras of her career from 1952 to 1962.

Sarah Cohen, president of Route 11 Potato Chips, said the net proceeds from the sale of the Patsy Cline tins will go to Celebrating Patsy Cline.

Based on her calculations, Cohen expects to raise about $40,000 for the museum project.

The museum development is being undertaken by Celebrating Patsy Cline, a non-profit organization preserving one of Winchester’s landmarks, the girlhood home of Patsy Cline on Kent Street in Winchester.

Labor Day Activities Include Patsy Cline Events

By: Star Traylor
The Winchester Star

An annual Labor Day weekend tradition in Winchester will continue this year.

Patsy Cline fans from near and far will celebrate Patsy Cline Weekend Friday through Sunday.

Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf, treasurer of Celebrating Patsy Cline, said three main events have been scheduled to celebrate the late country music star from Winchester this weekend.

Cline’s former husband, Charlie Dick, will make an appearance at the events, Huyett-Kempf said.

All-Time Classic PATSY CLINE'S GREATEST HITS Remastered, Upgraded and Reissued for First Time in 15 Years

LOS ANGELES -- /PRNewswire/ -- The longest best-selling album in country music history, PATSY CLINE'S GREATEST HITS, is being brought into the 21st century -- digitally remastered and with an upgraded booklet -- one day after what would have been her 71st birthday. PATSY CLINE'S GREATEST HITS (MCA Nashville/Decca/UMe), released September 9, 2003, is also being issued the same day as REMEMBERING PATSY CLINE, an MCA Nashville tribute album duplicating the 12-track lineup of PATSY CLINE'S GREATEST HITS with performances by contemporary stars Norah Jones, Michelle Branch, Amy Grant, Martina McBride with Take 6, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Lee Ann Womack, Natalie Cole and others. Together, the albums offer a unique perspective on one of the true greats.

Featuring the original classics "Crazy," "Sweet Dreams (Of You)" and "I Fall To Pieces," and stereo remake Of "Walkin' After Midnight," PATSY CLINE'S GREATEST HITS has been remastered by renowned engineer Bob Ludwig from the original three-track Decca recordings. The liner notes from the 1967 LP and 1988 CD reissue have been included, augmented by a chronology, complete song credits and 2002 interview with Harold Bradley, session musician and brother of Patsy's legendary producer Owen Bradley. In addition, the original LP cover has been restored.

As of August 2, 2003, PATSY CLINE'S GREATEST HITS, first released four years after her tragic 1963 death at age 30, has spent a total of 790 non- consecutive weeks on Billboard's country charts. When the Top Country Catalog Albums chart debuted in 1988, it was #1 -- and remained #1 longer than any release on any chart in history. Certified nine times platinum, it was the top country best-seller by a female until Shania Twain's 1995 THE WOMAN IN ME.

Of the 12 titles on the album, seven were Top 10 country (the four previously mentioned, "She's Got You," "Faded Love" and "Leavin' On My Mind") and nine charted pop (adding "So Wrong" and "Strange"). The other tracks are "Back In Baby's Arms," "Why Can't He Be You" and "You're Stronger Than Me."

But her popularity has since grown to monumental proportions, far beyond country music. In 1973, she became the first solo woman elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her 1991 four-CD set became the only platinum box from a female country artist. In 1996, the Willie Nelson-penned "Crazy" was named the #1 jukebox single of all-time and "I Fall To Pieces" Top 20 (the only others with two songs were The Beatles and Rolling Stones). In 1999, she was ranked in the Top 20 among VH1's "100 Greatest Women Of Rock & Roll."

Now, as it has for 35+ years, PATSY CLINE'S GREATEST HITS stands as the finest collection of songs by one of the premier singers, male or female, in the history of American pop music.

Judge Orders Sale of Cline Possessions
Items Once Owned By Legendary Singer Will Be Auctioned To Cover Estate Debts

By: Stephanie M. Mangino
The Winchester Star

A Winchester Circuit Court judge has authorized the administrator of Hilda Hensley’s estate to sell all of the remaining Patsy Cline items in the estate to cover costs.

Hensley, who was the legendary singer’s mother, died in Winchester on Dec. 10, 1998. Her will stated that her possessions should be split equally between her surviving children, Samuel L. Hensley and Sylvia M. Wilt.

Cline died in a March 5, 1963, airplane crash near Camden, Tenn.

The surviving siblings have battled over pieces of the estate since 2001.

Cline Assets Lawsuit Over

By: Kevin Killen
Nothern Virginia Daily

The ongoing legal dispute involving Patsy Cline's brother and sister, who have been embroiled in a bitter lawsuit over items from the estate of their deceased mother, appears to be over after a Circuit Court judge ordered remaining items to be sold Thursday.

Sylvia Wilt and her attorney, Philip Griffin II, and Samuel L. Hensley's attorney, Steve Pettler, appeared in Winchester Circuit Court on Thursday in hopes of settling a matter of selling certain items that were not covered during a March 2002 trial.

Hensley -- who filed the suit -- claims that Wilt seized items of Cline's clothing, a trunk and a manuscript from the estate after the death of their mother, Hilda Hensley, nearly three years ago.

At the conclusion of the two-day trial, a jury found Wilt not guilty of taking items from her mother's home.