Crazy for Winchester

STORIES FROM THE ROAD THIS YEAR COOPERATIVE LIVING IS TAKING A ROAD TRIP ALONG THE LENGTH OF ROUTE 11 AS IT CROSSES VIRGINIA FROM NORTH TO SOUTH. EACH ISSUE, CORRESPONDENT DEBORAH HUSO WILL RELATE HER EXPERIENCES ALONG THE WAY. Stories and photos by Deborah Huso, Contributing Writer Crazy for Winchester Located along the northern stretch of Virginia’s Route 11, Winchester oﬀers delights for Civil War buﬀs, old-time country music fans, and just plain wanderers like me. efore it became the Blue Ridge known as Route 11 Mountains. Named Band the “Valley one of the top 10 Pike,” the largely two- places to retire in the lane byway that runs United States by AARP, down the length of this picturesque small Virginia’s Shenandoah city is known for its Valley and points south commitment to his - all the way to Bristol on toric preservation as the state line with well as for its scenic Tennessee was first part of Shenandoah Valley “The Great Wagon Road.” location barely more The Great Wagon than one hour from Road once ran from the Washington, D.C. port of Philadelphia “I told my husband through the Appalachian we’re already in the Mountains, opening up perfect place to retire,” settlement of Virginia’s Charming shops, diverse eateries, centuries-old architecture, historical landmarks and says Lori Wolfe, a Shenandoah Valley as museums are all part of the attraction of Old Town Winchester. travel counselor with well as more isolated moun - the Winchester-Frederick tain regions southward into the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Wolfe moved to Georgia. Along this route thousands of Anglo-Irish, Scots-Irish, and Winchester from Connecticut when her husband’s job relocated Germans settled the “backcountry” of the southern mountains. him here. She’s been here ever since in the town that claims title as Today the route through Virginia has become famous for its access the nation’s apple capital. to Civil War battlefields, down-home cooking (Route 11 potato chips Some 250,000 people a year come to Winchester’s Apple and Mennonite baked goods, anyone?), antique shops and wineries. Blossom Festival in May, which also plays host to the world’s And while it parallels I-81 through Virginia, the interstate has not largest fireman’s parade. Up until her death in 1963, Winchester stolen the tourism traffic from this old U.S. highway. Quite the con - native Patsy Cline rode in the parade, even though she was never trary, all along Route 11, big towns and country villages are thriving. officially invited to participate. A driven, opinionated country I start my journey in Winchester, the first city established west of singer who was prone to wearing pants and smoking cigarettes, 30 Cooperative Living/January 2014 Cline was never happily embraced by her hometown during her lifetime. But she often managed to finagle a spot in the parade anyway. Currently the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley is hosting a “Becoming Patsy Cline” exhibit that chronicles the chart-topping singer’s life with a special focus on the years she spent in Winchester. Born to a 16-year-old mother in 1932, Virginia Patterson Hensley, as she was named, moved 19 times in the first 16 years of her life, often thanks to the hapless nature of her once- bootlegger father. Cline’s mother, Hilda, an accomplished and hardworking seamstress, eventually struck out on her own with her three children, renting a house on Kent Street in Winchester and doing everything Country-music legend Patsy Cline’s childhood home on from dressmaking to laundering Kent Street is now a historic landmark (above). and babysitting to help make ends meet. Meanwhile, young Cline imbibed her mother’s work ethic, quit school at age 16, and went to work herself, all the while practic - ing on the piano her mother had bought her eight years before and looking for every opportunity she could to sing, often balancing her work as a soda jerk at Gaunt’s Drug Store with performances at the Winchester Palace Theater. “She never learned to read music,” says Scott Summers, a docent at the Patsy Cline Historic House on Kent Street. Simmons says Cline learned The Winchester-Frederick County Convention and Visitors her art by ear and received constant Bureau features a Patsy Cline exhibit, including replicas of encouragement from Hilda, who also her western-style furniture (above). The four-block Loudon sewed most of Cline’s dresses and Street Pedestrian Mall showcases Winchester’s historic costumes even once she had become downtown district (below). a star. “The two were so close in age,” Summers remarks. “They were more like sisters than mother and daughter.” Summers developed his love of Cline’s soulful and sometimes mournful sound as a young boy. “My dad loved Cline and other old-time country stars like Loretta Lynn and George Jones,” he explains. “I grew up listening to it, and Cline’s music From Top: Scott Summers, a docent in the is timeless and still resonates today.” Patsy Cline Historic House, says Cline Cline, who finally gained national learned her art by ear. Julie Armel, director recognition when she appeared on of marketing and public relations at the Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts in Museum of the Shenandoah Valley, says a 1957, singing “Walkin’ After host of Cline’s dresses and costumes are on Midnight,” was responsible for devel - display at the museum. Lori Wolfe, travel oping what became known as the counselor with the Winchester-Frederick “Nashville Sound.” Her music topped County Convention and Visitors Bureau, both popular and country music says the city is the perfect place to retire. January 2014/www.co-opliving.com 31 a good jumping-off point. Occupied by both Federals and Confederates at various points during the war, the city changed hands more than 70 times dur - ing the conflict, and over 6,000 Civil War soldiers are buried here. You can get a brief introduction to the conflict in the Shenandoah Valley, FREE Visitors Guide (877) 871-1326 A centerpiece of Winchester’s Civil VisitWinchesterVA.com which saw heavy action War history is Stonewall Jackson’s in both 1862 and 1864, at Headquarters (above). Joanne Happ charts. “She was the first crossover artist in the Winchester-Frederick (right), a tour guide at the HQ, is a American music history,” Summers explains. County Visitor Center’s font of historical knowledge about Her success as a working-class girl rising Civil War Orientation Jackson and the war. to stardom is spellbinding, but her personal Center. The city of life was often rocky. She married at 21, Winchester is part of the divorced two years later, though she kept her Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Happ is a husband’s name as her stage name. Then she National Historic District fond admirer of had an affair with her manager, leading to (www.shenandoahatwar.org). Jackson, particularly his dogged determina - the end of his marriage, though the two A centerpiece of Winchester’s Civil War tion, not just as an officer but as a person. never wed. Cline was ultimately happily history is Stonewall Jackson’s Headquarters, “He graduated from West Point 17th in his married to Charlie Dick, three years her jun - a Gothic-style cottage on Braddock Street class with only a third-grade education,” she ior, in 1957. (You can, in fact, still visit the that served as the general’s headquarters dur - remarks. “He believed he could do anything nostalgic department store where Dick ing the winter of 1861-’62 while he prepared he wanted if he put his mind to it.” bought his wedding suit — Bell’s on for his famous Valley Campaign. Full of interesting trivia about the general Loudoun Street!) But even as she rocketed to If you’re lucky, you might land Joanne who died of pneumonia following his fame with hits like “Crazy” and “I Fall to Happ as a tour guide. “That’s ‘happy’ with - wounding at the Battle of Chancellorsville in Pieces,” her run was short-lived. In 1963, she out the ‘y, ’” she notes, as she tugs on her 1863, Happ tells me Jackson actually had died in a plane crash. white gloves, dressed to the hilt in full ante - sandy brown hair, not the dark hair his por - Dozens of photographs, memorabilia, and bellum regalia. Happ’s interest in Civil War traits so often show. To prove her point, she a host of her dresses and costumes are on history is fully justified. Her family, the shows me a lock of his hair in an exhibit display right now at the Museum of the Roulettes, owned three farms on the battle - case. “Most artists paint him with dark hair,” Shenandoah Valley. Among them is her field at Antietam. Happ is a font of historical she says. “Maybe it’s because they think it famous red cowgirl dress, which the muse - tidbits and tells me at the start of our tour, looks more masculine.” um’s director of marketing and public rela - “Sometimes Winchester changed hands Jackson’s headquarters is loaded with tions, Julie Armel, says is covered with 3,000 more than once in the same day.” carefully preserved artifacts from the gener - rhinestones that Cline and her mother al’s military campaigns, including the prayer applied by hand. “Most of these table he took everywhere with him, his tele - dresses,” says Armel, “are on view graph table, adjutant’s desk, and camp chair. for the first time publicly.” And did you know actress Mary Tyler Moore has a connection to Jackson’s head - CIVIL WAR WINCHESTER quarters? She is the great-granddaughter of If you’re looking to experience Lt.

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