orig. Virginia Patterson Hensley
born Sept. 8, 1932, Winchester, Va., U.S.
died March 5, 1963, near Camden, Tenn.
U.S. singer.
Cline sang with country music groups as a teenager. She began recording in the mid-1950s and won first place on Arthur Godfrey's television show with "Walking After Midnight" (1957), a hit that made her the first female country singer to cross over into pop music. In 1960 she joined the Grand Ole Opry . After recovering from injuries sustained in a car crash, she returned in 1962 with hits such as "I Fall to Pieces" and "Crazy." She was killed in an airplane crash.