Cline memorial takes on family reunion flavor

by Mark R. Dorolek
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER, WVA — Underneath the overcast clouds Sunday morning, friends, family, and fans turned out to pay their respects to Winchester’s favorite daughter, Patsy Cline.

Judy Sue Klempf, president of the nonprofit Celebrating Patsy Cline Inc., which is in charge of getting the Patsy Cline Museum at 134 N. Loudoun St. up and running, welcomed the approximately 40 people who came from near and far to the memorial service at Shenandoah Memorial Park.

“We are here to celebrate Patsy,” Klempf said, adding, “We want the museum to have integrity and quality and be something that she would be so proud of.”

Charlie Dick, the late singer’s husband, was glad to come back to the annual event and see so many familiar faces.

“Instead of being a fan club, it has been a family reunion,” he said.

Klempf asked some of those in attendance to share their memories and experiences that they had with Cline and her music.

Ernie Brickle of Spartanburg, S.C., has been attending the service for 18 years and expressed his feelings for Cline.

J.D. Thompson (left) gives out roses at the start of the Patsy Cline Memorial Service on Sunday at Shenandoah Memorial Park. Attending the service was Cline’s husband, Charlie Dick (second from right), along with fans Mario Munoz from California and Lois Radford of Chattanooga, Tenn. Radford has been attending the Patsy Cline Labor Day weekend events for 20 years.

Photo by Ginger Perry

“I am overcome,” he said. “I think Patsy would be pleased that not only her music has brought so much pleasure to so many people but it has brought people together.”

Brickle said he admires Cline’s music and who she was as a person.

“There has never been a voice like her’s,” he said.

Sean Sako of Nashville, Tenn., said he has been a fan of Patsy since he was 4 years old and this was his first time attending the memorial service.

“She means a lot to so many of us,” he said. “A special feeling comes over me when I hear her music.”

Mildred Keith of Kansas City, Mo., met Patsy at her last concert in Kansas City and asked to take a photograph with her.

“I am so glad I asked her to take that picture,” she said.

A few days later, on March 5, 1963, Cline perished with three others in a plane crash just outside Camden, Tenn. Cline was 30 years old.

“I saw her on a Sunday and the plane went down on Tuesday,” Keith said. “A friend told me about it and I said, ‘That can’t be I just saw her’.”

Ann Armstrong from the city of Guelph just west of Toronto, Canada, was lucky enough to become friends with Cline and her husband.

Armstrong said she and some friends met Cline at a show and after going to a couple more concerts Dick wanted to meet her and her friends’ husbands and they began hanging out.

“We had a lot of great days together,” she said.

Armstrong said she and Cline would mostly talk about family or some of the concerts she was getting ready for.

“It was short in years,” she said of their relationship, “but it was long on memories.”