The Impending Doom Before Patsy Cline’s Death
Patsy’s friends, Loretta Lynn and Ray Walker, have all since recalled Patsy telling them, months before her last performance, that she felt a sense of impending death. Patsy didn’t expect she would live much longer.
In the 1993 documentary “Remembering Patsy,” Loretta revealed that Patsy wrote her a letter saying: “It’s wonderful—but what do I do for ’63? It’s getting so even Cline can’t follow Cline.”
Just one week before the plane crash that took her life, Patsy reportedly told singer Ray Walker that she’s walking a fine line between life and death: “Honey, I’ve had two bad ones [accidents]. The third one will either be a charm, or it’ll kill me.”
A terrible car crash nearly derailed Patsy’s career on June 14, 1961. She and her brother got into a head-on collision in Nashville. Patsy was thrown into the windshield and spent a month in the hospital after she suffered injuries, including a dislocated hip, broken wrist, and a jagged cut across her forehead, which required stitches.
But this did not stop Patsy to continue her career. She was back onstage at the Grand Ole Opry shortly afterward, performing on crutches. She came back to the studio to record “Crazy,” written by Willie Nelson while she was still on crutches; the song peaked No. 2.
Though it’s quite hard to believe that Patsy Cline’s legendary career only spanned in three albums, her classic voice will live forever. It’s no longer a surprise when she was given one of the country music’s highest honors before any other female solo artist. In 1973, ten years after Patsy died, she became the first female solo artist to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Patsy’s plaque in the Hall of Fame paid tribute to her deep-rooted impact on country music. It said: “Her heritage of timeless recordings is testimony to her artistic capacity.”