"Dear Patsy"

“Dear Pasty”
“ If Only I Had Known You “

By
: Cousin
Melanie Marie Shifflett Ridner
© 2008





Pasty Cline Melanie Marie Shifflett Ridner
Virginia Patterson Shifflett Hensley Me at age 21
1932 – 1963 1957 till now 2008
30 Years Of Age Stephen Shifflett Line
Stephen Shifflett Line












“A Little History ”

Lue Grey Shifflett was born October nineteenth nineteen thirty four in Virginia.
My mother died on September first nineteen seventy four. As long as I could remember my mother had me singing and also trying to play the fiddle, mind you not the violin of the sophisticated , but the fiddle. I was so young and never knew why all the to do about music which , yes I so adored as I sang and sang and did choir and church as well.

I knew then of several visits from cousin’s in Virginia but really never enough of the family to even care as I was so young then. Momma’s family always seem to be a secret. I never knew any of my grandparents or any family history. I did know that there was musical talents in all of us but not where it came from. I like so many children grew up poor and we were put with family members while my mother worked hard to raise us children without a husband or friends.

The Shifflett’s were a wild bunch.

This I was told over and over but seemed to lean toward my Indian aunt or whom I had believed to be an aunt and have just found out was my cousin instead. See we never really know whom all our relatives are and many never keep that close contact as our families did not .

The Shifflett’s lived in Virginia and grew up poor but happy in music and all that happened in their past. The families seem to grow up with not less than a few dozen kids in each family. I grew up and led a rough life in Dayton , Ohio and was probably actually acting out so much like my family and never knew it. I got married and raised three children and did the house work thing and also worked and also learned life wasn’t so easy.
I went through troubled times with my children and when they were all gone I finally had time for my writing career which threw me into completing my education with putting myself through school and getting my G.E.D. and also I paid for three College courses on my own while living on as little as four hundred and forty four dollars only a month.

Then I went into writing Poetry books and writing songs and having people sing my music’s. Then I graduated into writing novel’s. But many was the time that I could not figure where all my talent had come from. Several months ago I started looking up my mother’s family and doing all the research and wound up meeting one of my cousin’s from Virginia right away and she e-mailed me back all she had on my mother’s family.

Much to my surprise I found out that Pasty Cline was my mother’s first cousin which really made me proud. I knew my mother had always had her music in our home but never knew why.
I was so proud to know that this Great Lady was and is my Cousin.

It has really blown me away and I do know from reading about her she was wild as a deer and I do believe knew what she wanted and when she got it all together she went after it. I was only six years old when she died and wish so much I could have known her and maybe even she would have done one of my written songs as well.
This is all the bases for this Story .

This story is a fictional story wrote by me and maybe wishful thinking as she stays so much in my mind these days. I have a friend named Everett Corbin in Nashville , Tennessee who sends me everything he can on Pasty because he knows she is my inspiration in my writing and music and all my works now.
“Dear Pasty” , yes dear Pasty my Cousin.

I often dream of going to Virginia once again. I had the luck to go through Virginia back in the seventies and seeing how beautiful it all was. This I felt was a place I would enjoy living.
Aahhh …. such majestic beauty .

I sit and listen to her music as I write my own works and know she is still singing for all of us in her works she left us all.

This story begins the year of her fatal death as I would so wish her to have never passed and would so have loved to have met her and know this person with such a great voice and hear her in person. But that tragic crash took her life and left many to mourn her as well as miss her but she is a Ledged and lives on.
I am turning fifty one years old next month and even though I only found out about my family link to her just a few months ago I have always loved her and her musical talent.

Gosh, what might have been if all had been so different.

This is to you my Cousin , Pasty or as you were born and wed- Virginia Patterson Shifflett Hensley - Cline- Dick.

A Cousin’s wishful thinking .

Melanie Marie Shifflett Ridner









“ Dear Pasty”
( If Only I Had Known You )

The rolling hills were passing us by as we crossed from West Virginia in to Virginia and the sun was setting below the mountains. As we traveled towards the Shenandoah Valley. Mamma drove the car with ease as we sped along.

The Spring air beat on my face as I stretched to see above the window sill. I was only six years old as we moved down the newly built highway back to our home.

The sky met the ground as the sun set and I could just barely see the firefly’s starting to come out as we rode. We had been to Ohio to visit relatives and now I more than ever could not wait to get home to play with my cousin Virginia .

She was my favorite cousin and she was ,yes so much older but still we were so close . I had been gone for two weeks now and could not wait to see her. I wondered what she could have possibly been doing since I was gone. Virginia sang all the time and had I was told since she was three years old for anyone and everyone who would listen.

And listen we all did when she sang. Mamma thought there was nothing like her first cousin and loved to hear her sing “Amazing Grace” which she always asked Virginia to sing when she could.

Never were we jealous of each other and momma had raised us to be respectful of everyone and anyone including all the family. We were a clannish family and their were cousin’s upon cousins, aunts and uncles everywhere that we all could not keep track , but many came together when Virginia was to sing for all of us.

Darkness had all but closed in as I thought about seeing Virginia I hoped yet tonight. Soon we turned into our dirt road leading to our home. It was outside of town a few miles and completely off the newly built road or highway as they called it. Seemed kinda silly for it to be called a highway but I guess we would all get used to that as well.
The year was nineteen sixty three and Virginia would be singing this week end for all of us.

Then she would be going to sing somewhere else before I could be with her again. Tomorrow I would get up before anyone else and run over to see her and spend some time with her myself I thought as I slowly dragged myself off to bed. Everything seemed alright as I slipped into peaceful sleep.

Morning came early for me as I always woke early and seemed to run over to Virginia’s house before mamma knew I was gone. No one locked their doors here as we were all family and like me family ran door to door at all hours day or night just for close company. Everyone knew what everyone else was doing somehow all the time . It was so uncanny at times and I always wondered how they all knew what was going on.

Running across the cut in the woods to Virginia’s little house I hummed as I hurried to see her. As I stepped into the house I could hear Virginia moving about and smell the odor’s of a good Saturday breakfast going on in the kitchen. Sneaking to the door I could see her helping her momma get the food ready. Out of the corner of her eye’s that seem to see everything all the time she saw me and let out a squeal happy to see me home again.

We ate and then after cleaning up the dishes we took off to the woods to play and talk . Saturday’s were just our day’s together .

Virginia always sang at church on Sunday’s if someone could keep up with our wild streak’s we had. We always talked about everything including growing up and what we would be. I always told Virginia she would be a great country singer like was on the radio now day’s and she would just laugh and say maybe or a model. She sure was pretty this cousin of mine.

Both of us were so willful at times we both could not be managed. But we were cousin’s and we shared it all here in the hills of Virginia. A love for our mountains and our people. The day stretched long and time went so fast as we stated back from the hills to home once more. Virginia and I used to dream of moving to these beautiful forests and mountains and hiding away never to grow up ever.

But it was all a wistful child’s life at that time. At Virginia’s home we stopped long enough to say good-bye and said we ‘d see each other in church tomorrow and giggled and winked at each other cause if we could get out of it we would. But that would be doing something as we had been caught so many times that it was old hat for Virginia’s grandma to now get up way before her and stay at her side till church and Sunday dinner was over.

That was when the real singing in the family would begin. Church was always a trial for us children. It seemed to go on and on with no ever thought of getting over with. Now I know God is somebody but did he have to take all our time up?

Today was to be a shorted sermon as it was Spring here in the mountains and many had been locked in due to the winter here this year. Both Virginia and I were so very thankful for this one break that we hoped we would get. As everyone piled out of the church the women began to set up the tables with all the fine foods that had been fixed for this special Sunday meal.

Our families as well as many other people , quite stranger’s had come to join in the singing and many wanted to see Virginia. It was always that way for my favorite cousin whom sang so beautiful and so well. Relative’s and food and good singing was pure happiness to me here in the family circles. I sat listening to my cousin sing “Amazing Grace “ for my momma and thought soon after a few more songs and some good food that Virginia and I could get away to ourselves once more .

We were building our future when we talked . I like to write and would write her poems , and then hear her sing the poems into song form so sweetly. It was a shame that we would soon not see each other for longer periods of time as she grew older and went away and became such a huge star .


Virginia could always handle the big crowds and I would be her shadow and side kick who stayed to the back and listened and watched. She grew up into a beautiful woman and sang and traveled the world over and I stayed to the mountains of Virginia and wrote Poetry , Books, Music and Novels while she had all the glamour she ever wanted.

Every so often as I rocked my children and then my grandchildren on my lap I would think of dear Virginia and all she had accomplished in her short life with me here in the old homestead. I always would remember her and always hear her singing to me and all the many family and stranger’s who came to see her on those Sunday’s so long ago. We always watched and waited for her visits and were so happy to see her again and hear her crisp clear voice and how she was doing in Nashville, Tennessee with her music and work.

We all asked how the children were and her husband and if all was well with her and wasn’t she just the luckiest person to have made it so big in Music these day’s. And her answer was the same , she was happy and God had Blessed her and kept her as his precious songbird to entertain so many for centuries to come.

Those had been the days of fun and frolic and growing up. I also knew our plans had been for naught , but my love for my cousin could never be forgotten as always, as always I knew she would come home again.
Melanie Marie Shifflett Ridner






The mountains beckon and the darkness falls once more in Virginia and the stories grow and the songs keep on being played. Virginia Patterson Shifflett Hensley will live on forever in Country Music and I am so proud to have only just learned recently that “The” Pasty Cline – Virginia Patterson Shifflett Hensley ,the songbird and Queen of Country music was and is my real Cousin.

Several of my songs have been compiled into a ten song cd “Dedicated “ to my Cousin Pasty ”Virginia” and soon will be selling at http://www.cdbaby.com.

The album is called “Love Like This “ by : Melanie Marie Shifflett Ridner and has all my favorite songs I have wrote “Dedicated “ to her and so many more family and people as well.

I have also decided to also include all my families as well and also “Donate” the earnings to several worthy cause’s as well.

The Kentucky Colonel’s , the Coal Miner’s and the Appalachian people as well.

This story was written in her memory of what might have been if we had grown up together and known each other. Since we did not , I have thought so much of her and have “Dedicated” all my Writings , Poetry and Country Music and Short Stories and Novels to her memory as family will do .

Always my Cousin , always “Dear” Virginia.
Virginia Patterson Hensley
Born September 8 th , 1932
Winchester, Virginia;
Passed Away in a tragic plane accident
March 5 th,1963
Camden, Tennessee

“Your music has lived on and always , will always”

Award Winning Story.
(C)-(P)2007- XoXo Publishing Inc.


http://melanieridner.blogspot.com/