Author opens new chapter in singer Patsy Cline’s past

Linda Sowers (pictured) says most people in her hometown knew of a local family with close ties to legendary country singer Patsy Cline.

That’s why she was genuinely puzzled after she read her first Patsy Cline biography and discovered that Hancock, Md., and those ties to the Brannon family weren’t mentioned anywhere in the book.

Now, with more than 40 years passing since the country music entertainer lost her life in an airplane crash, Sowers has released a book she says is the “never-before-told story of Patsy Cline’s real father and her unknown family.”

In “Patsy Cline: Our Father’s Other Daughter,” the Messiah College alumna documents the story of a woman who claims to be Patsy Cline’s half-sister, along with family memories and interactions with the singer.

Unlike previous biographies, which have written that Cline was the daughter of Hilda and Sam Hensley, Sowers says, “I grew up knowing Chester Brannon was her father.”

Confirmation of that came after Sowers, now of McConnellsburg, about 20 miles from Hancock, was introduced to Charlotte Brannon, who eventually told her the Brannon family story.

Setting record straight

Sowers says after years of correspondence, 71-year old Brannon decided it was “time to set the record straight.” Brannon contacted Sowers to pen her story and the women ventured on a journey through the past to “tell it like it was.”

“People in the area had always known the story and wanted Charlotte to write it down as part of Patsy’s history. There were a lot of crazy stories popping up, and she thought it was time to set the record straight,” Sowers says.

Up to this point, the Brannons had never talked publically about their relationship with Cline outside of trusted friends.

“I had often wondered why more people hadn’t picked up on the story,” says Sowers, who believes it was a matter of respect for the families. “These days people have half-brothers and-sisters, but back then you didn’t talk about it.”

Brannon explains that the subject had always been “delicate” among her relatives, and Cline’s mother had not talked beca! use the matter was taboo.

Even after a genealogist approached her about 1999, Brannon still wasn’t ready to talk.

It was only after coming across a manuscript about Cline that was full of misinformation that Brannon decided it was time.

“It’s important for me to have people understand that Dad and Patsy’s relationship was more than a biological one. They knew each other and spent time together. Dad was very supportive and proud of Patsy,” Brannon says in the book.

Though there is not much physical proof — no pictures or letters of the singer with the family - - Sowers says many of her interviews meshed with the stories she had grown up hearing about Patsy’s relationship to “Chet” Brannon.

“There have been doubters of the story. But this is not like someone stepping up and saying ‘I’m Elvis’ love child.’ I wouldn’t have worked on this book unless I believed the validity of it,” the recently retired social worker says. “I think people didn’t talk out of respect for Patsy Cline’s mom and for Chet’s wife.”

Still, Sowers says that it’s no secret in Hancock that Cline often visited the man she called “Pop Brannon.”

“She never hid the fact she went to see him,” Sowers says.

Not Cline’s biography

Sowers, who considers herself a big fan of the late singer, says the book helps develop a “new” chapter in Cline’s life story and how it intertwined with the Brannon family.

“The book doesn’t attempt to be a biography of Cline’s life,” she acknowledges. “But this is Charlotte’s story and it was important to write this down... because another generation and it would have become more like folklore.”

Cline is said to have been born Sept. 8, 1932, in Winchester, Va.