The Celebrating Patsy Cline organization is busy working toward opening a 2,500-square-foot temporary museum by the fall of this year. Eventually the goal is to open an even larger permanent Pasty Cline museum in Winchester.

But in the meantime, Pasty Cline fans near and far had been left with no local venue to learn about the legendary singer from Winchester.

Small displays of Cline memorabilia hosted in the Kurtz Building in downtown Winchester and the Winchester Frederick County Convention and Visitors Bureau no longer exist.

But a new local business, A Gift to Remember, on the Loudoun Street Mall, has stepped in to fill the temporary need. Dedicating part of the retail space to a growing display of Pasty Cline memorabilia, A Gift to Remember will host Patsy Cline Day from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, featuring a Patsy Cline singer, refreshments, story telling, and special raffle for a one of a kind "Patsy Cline" quilt.

"The Pasty Cline Day is our way of letting the community know that the Pasty Cline display is here and to help bring awareness that the quilt is being raffled to help the Celebrating Patsy Cline permanent museum," said Pam Fahnestock, co-owner of A Gift to Remember.

Inside the store, all kinds of unique gift items geared toward local interest are available Pillows bearing the stenciled names of local counties and high schools, Civil War-related items, apple -related items, and items bearing the state flower and state bird fill the store.

A Gift to Remember on the Loudoun Street Mall
houses Patsy Cline memorabilia as well as
souvenir items of the Winchester country singer.
The shop, co-owned by Pam Fahnestock (above),
will have Patsy Cline Day Saturday.
[Photograph by Rick Foster]

But in a loft area of about 200 square feet, A Gift to Remember has dedicated valuable retail space to Pasty Cline memorabilia.

Fahnestock and partner, Debbie Rhodes, said they did not plan to have such a big section devoted to the late Pasty Cline when they opened their gift shop in November. "It just happened," Fahnestock said. "When we decided to open a gift shop focusing on Winchester and Virginia gift items, we knew we wanted to sell Pasty Cline items."

During their research, the two women found out that there was really not a place in Winchester to go to purchase gift items related to the late country singer, or a place for local and out-of-town guests to learn more about Cline and her Winchester roots. "We found out people were really missing that," Rhodes said.

Along with a round table filled with Pasty Cline sweatshirts, CD’s, mouse pads, pencils, mugs, books, and other Cline gift items, the loft also includes memorabilia such as framed posters, records, including a triple platinum greatest hits album, photographs, old microphones, framed Pasty Cline stamps, and two life-size cut-outs perfect for fan picture taking. Anchoring the display is a furniture set replicated from Cline’s Nashville home living room. The tan vinyl couch with a matching slider chair and western looking wagon-wheel tables are on loan to the shop from the CPC organization.

Rhodes and Fahnestock also sell one-of-kind Pasty items like an original pottery line made by a local potter and sewn pillows bearing the singer’s image, also made locally. On the back wall of the display area hangs a one-of-a-kind handmade Pasty Cline quilt which the shop is raffling. All proceeds from the quilt raffle will benefit the CPC. Rhodes said the raffle will take place during the annual Pasty Cline Weekend in September.

The CPC, Patsy Cline Fan Club, and other Cline enthusiasts and collectors really made the temporary display at the gift shop possible. "Once we opened this area, people just started coming in and dropping off Pasty memorabilia. It really just grew from there," Fahnestock said. "Once the museum opens, we plan to scale down."

Philip Martin, president of CPC, said, "CPC will be establishing a museum, 2,500-3,500-square-feet in size, on the downtown pedestrian mall by the fall of this year. We are in negotiations with several owners presently to determine the best deal for the museum."

The museum will definitely have displays, costumes, artifacts, memorabilia, and an oral history interpretive area, a small performer’s stage, and much more, he said. "There will also be a significant gift shop venue as a part of the new museum," Martin said. "Some of the items in the display at A Gift to Remember may migrate to the museum depending on who owns them, etc."

But in the meantime Judy Sue Huyett-Kempf, a long-time board member of the CPC couldn’t be happier. "Now we have a place to go," she said.

Several bus tours have taken advantage of the new stop in Winchester, and Fahnestock said Governor Mark Warner even visited the display last week while on his visit to Winchester. "He got his picture taken with the quilt and bought a raffle ticket," she said.

Even though they may just be filling a niche for a short period of time, Rhodes said, she and Fahnestock are pleased to provide a venue for the downtown and out-of-town customers to learn more about Pasty Cline.

A Gift to Remember is located at 39 S. Loudoun St. in Winchester. For more information, call 667-6220 or e-mail aatr@adelphia.net. Click here for map.