LOS ANGELES – Julie Fudge can guess the Top Five questions people will ask about her mother, singer Patsy Cline. Since Cline’s death in 1963, Fudge has been the authority on all things Patsy, even though she was only 4 when her mother died. “The advantage I’ve had is the blessing of audio/visual and the stories I’ve gathered over the years that correspond to those memories,” Fudge says.
“I feel like I got a lot of her without her being here.” Julie Fudge, daughter of singer Patsy Cline, is charged with keeping her memory going. While Fudge doesn’t sing (another standard question) – “there’s a difference between ‘do’ and ‘can’ .
.. and I don’t” – she does have an appreciation for the songs Cline made famous.
While some might lean toward “Crazy” or “I Fall to Pieces,” she embraces “You Belong to Me” and other standards. Cline, who will be celebrated in a Great Performances special, “Walkin’ After Midnight,” Friday night, was actually more pop than country during her later years. In essence, she was Taylor Swift before Taylor Swift, and took great pride in singing at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
“Nobody liked Nashville to be the hay bale capital, right?” Fudge says. “She was the first female country singer to headline her own show in Las Vegas, so you had a different appeal.” A Great Performances celebration of Patsy Cline will include remembrances from Barbara Hall, daughter Julie Fudge and actress Beverly .
