On this day (November 8) in 2015, Charlie Dick — widower of late country music hitmaker Patsy Cline — died in his sleep at his home in Nashville. He was 81 years old.
While not a musician himself, Dick played a key role in his wife’s success, serving as her road manager. Following her tragic death in a 1963 plane crash, he strove to ensure the world never forgot the name Patsy Cline. In 1991, Dick helped re-release her albums as part of The Patsy Cline Collection. He also participated in many documentaries about the “Crazy” singer.
Today, we’re remembering Charlie Dick and his tireless efforts to preserve Patsy Cline’s legacy on the 11th anniversary of his passing.
How Did Charlie Dick and Patsy Cline Meet?
Charles Allen “Charlie” Dick was born on May 24, 1934, in Whitehall, Virginia. After graduating from high school, he moved to Patsy Cline’s hometown of Winchester, where he worked as a Linotype operator for a local newspaper.
Cline (born Virginia Patterson Hensley) was still nearly a year away from the breakout success of her single “Walkin’ After Midnight” when her path crossed with Dick’s at an April 1956 dance in Berryville, Virginia.
Dick was already familiar with Cline, having seen her on The Jimmy Dean Show. He asked her to dance, but she turned him down. “I’m working,” Cline told him. “I don’t dance.”
Soon, however, they had become a couple. “They both liked to be on the run all the time,” recalled Melvin Dick, Charlie’s brother, in an interview with PBS. “Her first husband, Gerald Cline, kind of liked her to be more of a homebody. But as soon as Charlie met her, if she said, ‘Let’s go here or there,’ he had the car running before she could get out to the car.”
They Were Married For More Than Five Years
On September 15, 1957, Charlie Dick and Patsy Cline tied the knot in Winchester. That same year, Cline had scored her first major hit with “Walkin’ After Midnight”.
They relocated to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where the U.S. Army had stationed Dick at Fort Bragg, before moving back to Winchester in 1959.
The couple had two children together.
After the Crash
Charlie Dick helped promote Patsy Cline’s music as she climbed the charts with megahits like “I Fall to Pieces” and “Crazy”. They remained married until March 5, 1963, when Cline died in a plane crash near Camden, Tennessee.
Just 30 years old, she was on her way back home to Nashville after a performance in Kansas City, Kansas. Fellow country singers Hawkshank Hawkins and Cowboy Copas also died in the crash, along with pilot Randy Hughes.
Following his wife’s untimely passing, Dick used the connections he’d built to start his own career in the music business. He spent the 1960s and 1970s working as a record promoter for several independent labels in Nashville, such as Starday Records.
Adamant that the world would remember Patsy Cline, Dick reissued her past hits and helped turn her 1967 greatest hits album into a top seller.
He continued to give interviews about her music and legacy for the rest of his life.
Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The post 11 Years Ago Today, We Lost the Man Who Fell in Love With Patsy Cline on a Dance Floor and Spent Decades Protecting Her Legacy appeared first on American Songwriter.
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