On Track for the Museum Opening

by F. C. Lowe
The Winchester Star

It’s about time — and Patsy Cline fans agree — for a museum dedicated to the legendary singer and native of Winchester. And this weekend a Hard Hat Tour is set at 134 N. Loudoun St., the site of the new museum on the Loudoun Street Mall. The public is invited to come and join in the free festivities and don yellow construction hats for the occasion. “We want to let people know we are on track for the museum opening in September,” said Celebrating Patsy Cline President Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf.

This is an appropriate time to acknowledge the museum, Huyett-Kempf said, as this weekend also coincides with the anniversary of the singer’s death March 5, 1963, in a plane crash in Camden, Tenn. This will give fans a glimpse into Patsy’s proposed museum, Huyett-Kempf said. Spearheading the plans for the weekend full of events is Winchester native, Phil Hunter, 62, a die-hard Patsy Cline fan who is history and collections chairman for CPC, the sponsor of the museum. He has compiled 17 binders about the museum project, which has been a goal of the CPC since the early 1990s.

“We didn’t know what form it would take,” Hunter said.

Phil Hunter, history and collections chairman for Celebrating Patsy Cline, is preparing for the Hard Hat Tour scheduled this weekend at the new museum site, 134 N. Loudoun St., Winchester. Events begin Friday and continue through Sunday.

Photo by Rick Foster

Now the project is well under way with Ralph Appelbaum Associates as the design firm for the 7,000-square-foot space in the W. T. Grant Co. building, constructed in 1951. “A lot of people have helped with the project,” Hunter said. “I’ve been at it 11 years. There have been peaks and valleys, and we’ve looked at dozens of places here.” But now, Hunter said, with the city of Winchester appropriating funds for the project, the group has moved forward with planning the museum.

While the first floor is wide open and empty at this time, Hunter said plans, in addition to exhibits and collections, include space for weddings, concerts, and a gift shop. Hunter has also been conducting oral history interviews of people who remember Patsy. So far he has completed 20 that will be part of the museum exhibits. His own recollection of Patsy was when she attended his Handley High School graduation in June 1961. She was there to see her sister, Sylvia Hensley, graduate — the first member of the family to graduate from high school, Hunter said. While he wasn’t a fan at that time, Hunter remembers how she arrived in the school auditorium in an evening gown and fur stole. “She created quite a stir as she waved and took a seat.”

A musician himself, Hunter who plays the bass guitar, said he became a Patsy fan in the mid-1980s. Since then, he has joined the fan club and collected memorabilia. To help fill up space in the empty museum site for the weekend activities, Hunter will bring some of his memorabilia, including a life-size image of Patsy he had made in 1996.

Phil Hunter had this life-size wooden statue made of Patsy Cline. It will be on display this weekend during the tour of the museum site on the Loudoun Street Mall in Winchester.

Photo by Ginger Perry

The likeness is from a photo taken of the legendary singer performing around 1961 in Nashville. “She is wearing one of the outfits her mother made,” Hunter said. The handpainted, wooden statue has been to festivals and even to Nashville, so Hunter feels it is appropriate for her to be at the open house for the museum site. Activities for the weekend include the following:

Friday

A presentation of planned exhibits by museum’s design partners, architectural firm Carter+Burton and exhibit design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, will begin at 6 p.m. The building will be open for tours, and the gift shop will be available. The documentary “Sweet Dreams Still” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Host Robert K. Oermann offers a guided tour of performances spanning Cline’s career, from clips of her earliest performances to her final televised appearance.

Saturday

The building will be open from noon to 5 p.m. for tours and the gift shop will be operating. A Patsy Cline karaoke contest will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Live entertainment will be provided from 4 to 5 p.m. by JD Dawson and Original Country Band. Sunday The building and gift shop will be open from noon to 4 p.m.

For information, call 1-888-608-2726.