By Paul Thompson
Broadcast: November 28, 2004
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Doug Johnson with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about a young woman named Virginia Patterson Hensley. No one but her family would remember that name. The world remembers her as Patsy Cline.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
That song is called "Walkin' After Midnight. " It was Patsy Cline's first big hit record. She recorded it in nineteen fifty-seven. It became number three on the list of country music hit recordings and number twelve on the list of most popular music.
Patsy had worked for many years to make that first successful record. She began singing when she was a young girl in her home town of Winchester, in the southern state of Virginia. Patsy sang anywhere she could. She sang at weddings and dances. She sang at public eating places for eight dollars a night. Those who knew her said she worked hard to improve her singing.
In nineteen fifty-four she won a country music competition near her home. She was twenty-two years old. She was asked to appear on a country music television program in Washington, D.C. She also sang on radio programs in the Virginia area and recorded some records.
