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Patsy’s Husband, and More
By: Stephanie K. Moran The Winchester Star
A record company record promotion man. Father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. All are roles once or currently filled by former Winchester resident Charlie Dick, who is more famously known as the husband of legendary singer Patsy Cline. This weekend, fans from all over the world are in Winchester to celebrate the life of Cline, who died in a March 5, 1963, plane crash in Tennessee — at the apex of her popularity. Charlie’s also in town for the events, visiting again after attending his first Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival in decades last May. This year’s festival theme, “Crazy for the Bloom,” honored Cline and one of her most famous songs, the Willie Nelson-penned “Crazy.” ---
Charlie was a part of Patsy’s life for about seven years — they began dating in 1956 and married in 1957, and the union ended in 1963 with Cline’s death at the age of 30. Their life together was central to the 1985 film “Sweet Dreams.” “It’s a good movie if you like fiction,” said the semi-retired Dick, who was portrayed as abusive to his famous wife. “We were both hard-headed and hot-tempered,” he said during a telephone interview from his Nashville-area home. While their relationship was tempestuous, the nature of their marriage has been described over the years in biographies, films, and video. “I think most of it’s out by now,” Dick said.
Dick admitted that the marriage “was not all a bed of roses” and has said he did strike Cline once to calm her down. “She got hysterical one night.” As for what Patsy’s fans believe about the behavior ascribed to him in the 1985 film, Dick joked: “Nobody [tried to] beat the hell out of me yet.” But Charlie’s life has existed outside of Patsy’s for far more years than the two knew each other, even though he now remains one of the keepers of his late wife’s flame. ---
Born on May 24, 1934, at his family’s home near Whitehall, Charles A. Dick became a Winchester resident at a fairly young age. His family lived on National Avenue, and young Charlie started attending Virginia Avenue Elementary School in the third grade. The following year, the boy — small for his age — tagged along with some friends and transferred to Handley High School, which had grades 4-12 at the time. He attended through the 1950 school year, dropping out when he was 15 or 16. “I didn’t get along with teachers very well,” Charlie said. Once out of school, he ended up working as a linotype operator for The Winchester Evening Star. This job, however, wasn’t his first exposure to the newspaper. As a younger boy, he helped Butch Boxwell, a newspaper carrier with a large route, and then later took on his own newspaper delivery route. His territory ranged from the former newspaper offices on Boscawen Street down to the present-day site of Quarles Elementary School. Dick said he was then given a route closer to his home. He moved from deliveries to circulation, wrapping packages and engaging in similar work. Once he quit school, Dick said, one of his bosses gave him a shot at learning linotype for the afternoon paper. “He let me go in there and learn at night.” The paper’s advertising director at the time also assisted Dick, helping him with his English and teaching him how to hyphenate text at the end of a line. The ex-linotype operator still showed pride in his former work during his recent interview, stating that there were no “ragged rights” — uneven right margins, such as in this story — in the paper of that era. “Every line was justified [spaced to end evenly],” he said. ---
In the summer of 1956, the linotype operator began dating a local aspiring singer by the name of Patsy Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley.) The two met in Berryville at one of her singing dates, and when Dick asked her to dance, she declined the offer, saying she couldn’t dance while working, Dick said. Later, he saw her dancing with someone, and asked her about it. Patsy replied: “That was my husband.” Soon, however, Patsy and her husband, Gerald Cline, decided to divorce, and Patsy moved into her mother’s home at 720 S. Kent St. It was then that Charlie and Patsy began their relationship, Dick said. Around that time (between meeting Patsy and being drafted into the Army in March 1957), Charlie left the newspaper. “I think I probably got fired by then,” he said, recalling that he was often late for work. “That, among other things,” he added. While they were dating, Charlie accompanied Cline to New York in the early summer of 1956 for her second audition for Arthur Godfrey’s “Talent Scouts” television show. Cline wasn’t notified about her status by the show’s staff, and thought she hadn’t been selected to perform, Dick said. But in December 1956, Patsy was told as she made a regular appearance on a Washington television show starring Jimmy Dean: “Do your best tonight because Mr. Godfrey’s at home [in Loudoun County] and he’s watching.” Cline appeared on Godfrey’s show soon thereafter, winning the Jan. 21, 1957, talent contest with her performance of “Walkin’ After Midnight,” a song which became one of her biggest hits. That same month, Charlie was drafted, and left to join the Army in March 1957. Their separation didn’t last long, though, as the couple decided to marry on Sunday, Sept. 15, 1957 — one week after Cline’s 25th birthday. After the wedding, the two moved to Fayetteville, N.C., because Charlie was stationed at Fort Bragg. “Oh boy! We’ll put you in psychological warfare,” is how Dick remembered his first Army assignment. He said he had been asked about his civilian occupation and, with his background in linotype work, he was directed toward psychological warfare, which produced leaflets and similar items. Later, Dick was a motor pool dispatcher, which wasn’t too hard, since the motor pool had about 20 vehicles and he dispatched about two each day. “Other than having to be there, the Army was nothing [difficult] . . . I just fell into everything,” Dick said.
The couple eventually moved back to Winchester in March 1959, after Dick’s two years of draft service ended. They lived in a house in Colonial Heights off Berryville Avenue, but didn’t stay long, deciding to head to Nashville. “We moved on government money,” Charlie said, noting that he had continued to receive allotment checks after he was discharged from military service. He and Patsy had cashed and spent the first check, believing that no more were coming. Five or six more arrived, though, and they kept the wrongly sent checks. When they decided to move, the two “cashed them and took off,” Dick said, adding that they paid the money back later. ---
While Patsy recorded in Nashville, Charlie found work at a printing shop, and eventually worked as a union printer for two Nashville newspapers. By 1960, Patsy — who had been signed by Four Star records and then leased to Decca records — was signed to a Decca recording contract, Charlie said. Late in 1960, she also recorded her first big hit in years, “I Fall To Pieces.” In January 1961 — the month “I Fall to Pieces” was released — Patsy gave birth to their second child, Randy. The song was the No. 1 single on Billboard’s country chart while Cline was in the hospital. As the record rose on the charts, Patsy was involved in a serious car crash on June 14, 1961. The accident left her with several injuries, including a dislocated hip. Charlie said he found Patsy’s hospital bill recently. She was hospitalized for 33 days, and “the hospital bill was $1,200.” Patsy left the hospital on crutches, ready to work again. “The dates were looking good, and the money was looking good, and we needed it,” Charlie said. She asked him to help her on the road temporarily, dealing with disc jockeys and almost acting as a road manager. “I didn’t really know what I was doing,” Dick said, even though his job became more permanent. Until the time of her death, Cline continued to have hits, notably “Crazy” and “She’s Got You.” Two hits bookended her death, with “Leavin’ on Your Mind” hitting its peak at No. 8 on the country charts in January 1963 and “Sweet Dreams” becoming a posthumous hit (No. 5) in April. Although the film “Coal Miner’s Daughter” showed Patsy with her own band and bus, those were things she didn’t see during her lifetime, Dick said. “We were already working on that” at the time of the plane crash that occurred as she and three others — singers Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins, and her manager, Randy Hughes, the pilot — flew back to Tennessee from a benefit concert in Kansas City, he said. ---
Charlie considered moving back to Virginia after Patsy’s death, but he was convinced to stay in Nashville by country stars Dottie West and Loretta Lynn, as well as their respective husbands, Bill and Mooney. A friend named Timothy Hill told Charlie about a record promotion job with Starday records, but Charlie said he was unsure about his qualifications. Hill assured him that he had already been doing the work with Patsy. Charlie applied, got the position, and stayed for eight years. In 1965 he married again, to another woman in the country music business, Jamey Ryan. The couple had a son in 1968, Charlie Dick Jr., known as “Chip.” Jamey and Charlie married on July 4 — “a lot of fireworks,” he said — and divorced in 1972. “I was in Daytona at the races . . . ,” he recalled. “We’re still friends.” Charlie worked as an independent promotions man after leaving Starday. In 1980, the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” — a biography of Loretta Lynn — renewed interest in Cline and her career, he said. In the mid-1980s, he met two Canadian brothers who wanted to produce videos about country stars, including Jim Reeves, Marty Robbins, and Patsy Cline. “I was the last one they found,” Charlie said. He agreed to work with them, but only “if I could have control” to clear up the discrepancies he said were in “Sweet Dreams.” Charlie helped to set up interviews for the resulting video, “The Real Patsy Cline,” and watched the editing process as well. When the brothers decided to open an office in Nashville, they offered to let Charlie run it. He also became a part-owner in the company. Many artists were profiled in pieces produced by the company, including Cline in “Remembering Patsy Cline,” Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, and the pop group The Mamas and The Papas. However, just as the brothers wanted to branch out into pop music profiles, “Patsy got hot as pistol,” in the eyes of the public, Charlie said. Dick sold his portion of the business, and began handling Patsy’s estate with the company Legacy Inc. That company was established after the family heard about two stage shows, “Always, Patsy Cline” and “A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline.” Dick said the original intent was to close the shows, but instead the company was created and licensed the productions. --- Dick, who is listed in the phone book, also keeps in contact with fans and listens to their stories — such as that of a woman whose 4-year-old daughter loves Cline’s songs and can sing a half-dozen of them. Although he sometimes has to correct erroneous information, he said of Patsy’s fans, “I’m amazed at the things they do know.” Dick remembered a chance meeting with a woman at a restaurant — she had learned that he was Cline’s husband. When the woman, who was waiting for a takeout order, realized who he was, “I thought she was going to do a backflip off that barstool,” Dick said. He and his friends talked to her at length, as her food sat on a counter and grew cold. Dick said Patsy would often talk to fans after her shows, and he has been shown numerous pictures she signed and letters she wrote. Charlie doesn’t seem to mind keeping in touch with Patsy’s fans, who feel a connection with her — gone almost 40 years — through him. “It’s just like they’re meeting Patsy,” he said. Almost retired, Charlie, who has seen the births of grandchildren and a great-grandchild, still acts as an independent contractor for the video production company and does some work with Legacy Inc. “If I’m needed . . . I’ll be out there doing it,” he said. “I haven’t retired to the couch.” |
Originally Published In The Winchester Star On September 1, 2001
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