Woman's Photo Gave Country Music Fans A Last Look At Patsy Cline

By: BRIAN BURNES
The Kansas City Star

In her long career as a country music fan, Mildred Keith has photographed many singers and musicians.

But it is the picture she took 40 years ago this month and still hangs on the wall of her Ruskin Heights home that stops visitors short.

It's a photograph of Patsy Cline, snapped as the singer prepared to perform March 3, 1963, at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan. Two days later Cline was dead, killed in the crash of a small plane near Camden, Tenn.

Though at least one other photograph of Cline performing that day is known to exist, many country fans consider Keith's photograph the "last" picture taken of the singer. In the image, Cline is photographed from below while wearing a white dress and vivid red lipstick. Her hands are folded in front of her as she gazes to the right.

This week Keith probably will hear from friends across the wide Patsy Cline fan network, wanting to reminisce about the singer's death.

Patsy Cline (excerpt)
Many fans will be in town this weekend to mourn the 40th anniversary of the death of the country music legend Patsy Cline and three others.

The Intimate Story Of Patsy Cline (excerpt)
Sadly, just when the best of her life began, it ended: March 5, 1963, when on the journey home to Tennessee, after performing at a benefit, she, her manager Randy Hughes and Grand Ole Opry stars Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas were killed just outside Camden, TN, in the crash of Hughes' four-seater airplane.

Patsy Cline Memorial Starts Friday (excerpt)
Briarwood School will be host to this weekend’s Patsy Cline Memorial activities. The event was originally scheduled for Camden City Park but cold weather forced its move inside.

'Opry' To Be Syndicated Nationally

By: JEANNE A. NAUJECK
Staff Writer

Westwood One sets sights on 2,000 radio stations.

Soon country music fans will be able to get the Grand Ole Opry on their radios, even if they can't pick up WSM-AM's powerful signal.

Country music's longest-running showcase, broadcast on WSM every Saturday night for the past 77 years, will be available on radio stations nationwide beginning in April as a syndicated program from Westwood One.

The radio network is packaging highlights from live Opry performances into "America's Grand Ole Opry Weekend," a two-hour program that will be offered to more than 2,000 affiliates with country formats.

The syndication deal continues an effort begun several years ago to expand the show's reach beyond the 30 or so states within WSM's 50,000-watt signal range. Unlike Opry programming on cable television, the Internet or satellite radio, the Westwood One show would be free to commercial-radio listeners.

Country Radio Now Gunnin' For Young'uns

By: JEANNE A. NAUJECK
Staff Writer

Music promoters need to aggressively infiltrate mainstream American pop culture if they want to convert the Eminem generation into country music listeners, researchers told attendees at yesterday's Country Radio Seminar.

Only 12% of 15- to-29-year-olds cite country as their favorite musical genre. But that audience can be increased through marketing efforts like tie-ins to movies, festivals and sporting events where large groups of youths gather, said Howard Handler, a youth marketing expert who has helped capture young audiences for the National Football League and MTV.

"You need to send a message that country is a central part of the young adult lifestyle, that it's cool," Handler said yesterday.

Country Radio Broadcasters commissioned the study on youth marketing for presentation at CRS 34, country radio's signature gathering which ends today at the Nashville Convention Center.

‘Remembering Patsy’ Offers Fresh Insights
Rare Photos Published In New Book

By: Stephanie M. Mangino
The Winchester Star

A couple of weeks before the 40th anniversary of Patsy Cline’s death, a new book offers insight into Cline’s life by using the recollections of others.

“Remembering Patsy,” published this month by Rutledge Hill Press of Nashville, combines those memories with a host of rare photographs of Cline by Les Leverett.

The book was the idea of the publishers, said its writer Brian Mansfield. “It really built from the collection of Les’ photographs.”

Many of those photos are of Cline onstage or while traveling in her few years of hit-making before the March 5, 1963, plane crash in Tennessee that took her life.

In September 1932, Cline (Virginia Patterson Hensley) was born in Winchester, where she spent her teen years and started her musical career.

Mansfield, the Nashville correspondent for USA Today and professional writer of 18 years, is a Cline fan, and said no serious fan of country music can consider himself such “without getting back to Patsy real fast.”

Cline remains an influence for today’s country stars, said Mansfield, and that’s most likely due to a combination of factors.