08/12/2026
Thanks Washington and Lee-History and Tradition for spotlighting this integral part of Patsy Cline’s musical roots! ❤️🎵💃 During their time in Lexington, the family saved up and bought a used piano for her 8th Birthday! 🎹 Listening these big bands significantly influenced Patsy Cline’s distinctive sound ! 🎙️🎵🎵
Thankfully, this plaque is still in place. Patsy’s father, Sam Hensley, was the head boilerman at W&L from 1937 to 1942, and the family, including Patsy (her real name is Virginia; she was called “Ginny” at the time), lived in a house across Woods Creek from Doremus Gymnasium at W&L..
Patsy was five when the family moved to Lexington. The first professional music she ever heard wafted from the big bands that visited W&L. “For five years,” he writes, “Ginny sat by her bedroom window and heard weekly dance concerts by the world-class jazz orchestras that came on campus to soundtrack fraternity parties.”