Patsy Cline Widower Charlie Dick Dies

Charlie Dick, the widower of Patsy Cline, died in his sleep on Sunday morning (Nov. 8) at the age of 81.

The pair were married on Sept. 15, 1957, a year after they met at a dance in Winchester, Va. It was the second marriage for Cline, and the couple had two children together, Julie and Randy.

After Cline's death in 1963, Dick began working in the music industry as a record promoter in the 1960s and 1970s. He remarried in 1965, but continued to maintain Cline's legacy through keeping her music in the spotlight, including 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter in which actress Beverly D'Angelo played Patsy Cline, as well as reissuing her music. Through his assistance, Patsy Cline's 1967 Greatest Hits album remained the biggest selling album by a female vocalist until Shania Twain's The Woman in Me.

Dick said he was never surprised at his wife's longstanding legacy. In an interview with local paper, the Winchester Star, he addressed Cline's continued popularity long after her death.

"Until Patsy came along, country music had been very rural. She sang real torch songs, real standards, that weren't pure country and appealed to an audience who liked popular music as well," he told the paper. "And when she sang a song, for that three minutes she became a part of that song."

Dick is survived by a son from his second marriage. Funeral arrangements are pending.

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