TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1963)

PATSY CLINE (Continued from page 5) him. She was spunky and she managed to get an audition with Wally. Once he'd heard that big beautiful voice, Wally put Patsy right up there on the Palace stage with him. After the show, he talked with her parents and persuaded them to let her go to Nashville to try her luck. Another star-maker, Arthur Godfrey, soon proved that Wally had been right. On January 21st, 1957, the "Talent Scouts" cameras focused on this little girl. She didn't gesture much or jump around like a lot of other performers. Calmly and quietly, she stood in one spot and sang her song. / go on Walkin' After Midnight, Out in the starlight, Just hopin' you may be somewhere A-Walkiri1 After Midnight, Searching for me. When she took her little bow, she was still in the same spot. She never had to use anything more than her voice to wrap up an audience and make them hers. When the time came for the studio audience to vote, they put Patsy right on top. The viewing audience picked her a winner, too, and a record of "Walkin' After Midnight" was rushed out to meet their demand. But it wasn't all a Cinderella story after that. Friends say Pat was held back by bad breaks and that her success should have come sooner than it did. When it did come, Pat was modest about it. When her record of "I Fall to Pieces" climbed to the number-one spot on the country hit charts and stayed and stayed and stayed, all Pat would say was, "Thank the good Lord for songwriters like Hank Cochran and Harland Howard." With her latest hit, "Leavin' on Your Mind," and the Decca album she made just before her death, Patsy reached a new peak. Yet she had even more to give — if only there had been time. The little girl from Winchester became the number-one female vocalist in country music and number-three in the popular field. Yet she never forgot where she came from. She loved Charley and her children and she took a great pride in making a home for them. They had recently bought a new house and Pat furnished it with loving care. Its door was always open. Whatever hour of the day or night friends arrived, Patsy would always have food waiting for them. Well, they've taken her back to Virginia now, to be buried near the place she was born. Yet that isn't the end of it. When Hawkshaw and Cowboy and Patsy started out, they called it "country music." It's just for "simple folk," they said. But, somehow, it turned out that there were more "simple folk" than anyone had dreamed of. Today, country T music is national music — and it hapv pened because of the song they sang R and the heart they put into it. It happened because these are people you just can't forget. — The Editors 68 get about getting married in the Bronx . . . perhaps they should go out of the state . . . perhaps. . . . But, even as time was running out, people they didn't know or had never met were busy working for them. People like New York's Mayor Wagner, whose office was doing everything possible to cut through official red tape; people like Rabbi David B. Hollander, who spent hours on the telephone attempting to see if some person or agency might be appointed Bernard's temporary guardian; people like television news announcer Gabe Pressman, who put an S.O.S. on the air which, after presenting Gloria and Ricky's dilemma, ended with a plea that went something like: "Mr. Richardson, wherever you are, come forth ! " A phone call came into the marriage bureau from Ricky's paternal grandmother, who gave them a lead as to his father's possible whereabouts. A lawyer who had handled the divorce between Ricky's mother and dad provided a clue. It was now five o'clock. Closing time. But an order came through from Mayor Wagner: Keep the bureau open another hour. Suddenly, the clues and leads brought results. The father, who'd remarried, was at a hotel in Florida. The Red Cross in New York got in touch with the Red Cross in Florida, and a car was speedily dispatched to the hotel. Mr. Richardson produced the necessary papers and signed the required "consent" document. Word was immediately flashed to New York. The wedding would go on as scheduled! For Gloria, the reception before the wedding . . . the ceremony itself and the celebration afterwards . . . fuse into one wonderful blur of happiness. A dream coming true Dancing with Bernie. . . . Having her garter fall down during the rehearsal (that must be a lucky sign!). . . . Hearing Abner Sobel, the cantor, sing (in Hebrew), "How godly it is when all people live together," to begin the actual wedding ceremony. . . . Feeling her heart thump wildly as she starts down the aisle and sees Ricky, handsome in his winter-green Marine uniform, coming back toward her, hand outstretched, to lead her up to where the rabbi is waiting. . . . Joining her father, mother and brother, and Ricky's aunt and uncle, and the bridesmaid, and the rabbi, cantor and William Hoffman, the other religious witness, under the flower-covered canopy, symbolic of the home she and Ricky would someday share together. . . . Drinking ceremonial wine from one cup with Ricky after the first two blessings are over. . . . Holding out her ring finger to Ricky and having him slip on the plain gold band (plain and unjeweled because the ring itself must not be of great value; only the marriage is valuable), and hearing the sacred, sweet words, "Thou art wedded unto me by this ring according to the law of Moses and of Israel." . . . Listening to the reading of the marriage contract, first in Hebrew, then in English. . . . Having the band leader, Shelly Wynn Zimber, sing Ricky's and her favorite song, "'Til There Was You," from the balcony of the temple. . . . Thrilling to the words of Rabbi Hollander: "My dear bride and groom, your determination achieved much more than the attainment of your personal happiness. What you did by your application was to reveal the greatness of America and the humility of our great president, John F. Kennedy. For this is America in its truest image — that, even in the time of national crisis, the dignity of the individual, the freedom and opportunity to live a sacred life, is not lost sight of." . . . Seeing Ricky break the wine glass with his foot, while the Rabbi intoned, "At moments of great happiness, we must not forget the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, signified by the broken glass . . ." Walking back down the aisle with Ricky at her side and seeing the faces of all her loved ones smiling up at her. . . . Retiring with Ricky into the rabbi's study, while the rabbi and Mr. Sobel and Mr. Hoffman wait outside as witnesses to the fact that bride and groom, in keeping with orthodox law, have been alone together. . . . Kissing Ricky. . . . Kissing Ricky. . . . Kissing Ricky. . . . Slipping away with Ricky for a few moments to write a thank-you message to President Kennedy. . . . Answering a reporter who inquires whether she'd write to the President again if she and Ricky had trouble during their marriage: "I've done all the writing I plan to." . . . Hearing Ricky's reply to the question, "What'll you do if she writes to the President after you have a fight?" — "There just won't be any disputes." . . . Smiling as Ricky, after being asked if he'd ever call on the President, replies, "The one thing I can tell you is he sure can call on me for anything." . . . Nodding happily when Ricky says that he'll go back into the Marines when his enlistment is up in 1964. . . . Blushing deeply when her father, in reply to a query about how he feels about his daughter's marriage, says, "Do you see her face? It's too much. Only him. He's God." . . . Holding back tears as she notices how proudly her mother is looking at Ricky and herself. . . . Hugging her dad tightly to her when, in response to an inquiry about his reactions to President Kennedy, he grins and insists, "Why, if he walked in that door and I saw him now, I'd kiss him." Walking out to the street with Ricky's firm hand on her arm . . . and having the hat-check girl call after them, "Goodbye and good luck, Mrs. Richardson" — words that, just a few weeks before, she was sure she'd never hear. — Jim Hoffman •••••••••••••••••••••••••a BUY U. S. SAVINGS BONDS AND INVEST IN YOUR FUTURE •••••••••••••••••••••••a**