# 2772 - 1993 29c Country Music Legends: Patsy Cline

U.S. #2772
1993 Patsy Cline – Country & Western
Legends of American Music Series

• Celebrates Patsy Cline and her contributions to Country Music as well as music as a whole
• Issued as part of the Country & Western honoring members of the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Part of the Legends of American Music Series

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Country Music Legends
Series:  Legends of American Music
Value:  29¢, First Class Mail Rate
First Day of Issue:  September 25, 1993
First Day City:  Nashville, Tennessee
Quantity Issued:  100,000,000 (Includes booklet stamps and panes of 4)
Printed by:  Stamp Venturers
Printing Method:  Photogravure (Printed on a Champlain webfed gravure press)
Format:  Pane of 20 (horizontal, 4 across, 5 down)
Perforations:  10.1 x 10.2 (sheetfed stroke perforator)
Tagging:  Prephosphored paper

Why the stamp was issued:  This stamp was issued to honor country music legend, and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Patsy Cline.

About the stamp design:  All four Country & Western stamps picture artwork by Richard Waldrep.  The designs were created using Waldrep’s airbrush paintings based on photographs sent to him by USPS researchers.  Both the Hank Williams and Carter Family stamps have orange backgrounds while the Patsy Cline stamp has a blue-violet background and the Bob Wills stamp has a variegated background shifting from mauve to fuchsia.

First Day City:  This stamp, along with the rest of the Country & Western set, was issued on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of country music.  There could be no better place for the First Day Issue Ceremony of the stamps honoring members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

About the Country & Western set:  The four-stamp set was issued to commemorate a handful of the men and women whose contributions to country and western music made history.  The set pictures Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, the Carter Family, and Bob Wills.  The Hank Williams stamp was the same design used earlier in 1993.  Each person pictured in the Country & Western set has the designation of being listed in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

About the Legends of American Music Series:  The Legends of American Music Series debuted on January 8, 1993, and ran until September 21, 1999.  More than 90 artists are represented from all styles of music:  rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, country and western, jazz and pop, opera and classical, gospel and folk.  In addition to individual singers and Broadway musicals, subjects include band leaders, classical composers, Hollywood songwriters and composers, conductors, lyricists, and more.  The Legends of American Music Series was a huge advancement for diversity because it honored many Black and female artists.

History the stamp represents:  Born Virginia Patterson Hensley, Patsy Cline began her career performing in local clubs as a teenager.  Yearning to make it big, she tried to break onto the Nashville scene in 1948.  Unsuccessful in her attempt, she would wait nearly a decade before her dream came true.  In 1957, her performance of “Walking After Midnight” not only won her first place in Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scout Contest, but also made record executives sit up and take notice of her.

Her recording of the song, made later that year for Decca Records, climbed to the top of the country charts and earned her a place on the pop charts – a feat far less common that it is today, especially for a female vocalist.  Other top-selling releases soon followed including “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “She’s Got You.”  In the late 50s she moved to Nshville to join the Grand Ole Opry.  Her unforgettable voice and pop-oriented recordings greatly increased the popularity of country music, which had taken a backseat to rock ‘n’ roll.

Her brilliant career ended in 1963, when her plane crashed near Camden, Tennessee.  Even after her death, however, her single releases continued to sell well into the 1960s, and her performances still inspire female country artists even today.