George Vecsey - Coal Miners Daughter (Expanded Updated)

I ts been over forty years since the book you hold in your hands was released. First it was a best-selling book; then it was an Oscar-winning movie. Forty years.

To me, that feels like yesterday.

Today Im eighty-eight years old. Whod have thought Id live to be this old? I sure didnt. My daddy had a stroke when he was just fifty-oneand I got kids older than that!

Lately I think a lot about the past. My memories are as real to me as the minute Im living in now. When I think about people Ive loved who have already passed, my heart fills up and the memories just start to pour. Thats the way I felt when me and my daughter decided to write about my good friend Patsy Cline here lately. Id been talking about Patsy a lot and my daughter said, Momma, weve got to write some of this down. I knew she was right. Patsy was my best friend. If it werent for her, I dont know what Id have done. Me and her made a great team.

While we were writing the book that became Me & Patsy Kickin Up Dust, our editor asked me questions like, Did that happen in kindergarten or third grade? or What color was that couch? I told her, Honey, I dont know. When youve lived as long as I have, you just try and remember back that far! Some things you just know and some things, well, who cares?

Fortunately, a lot of my memories have been preserved. Lord knows Ive done thousands of interviews over the years, so theres plenty of articles, videos, and even books where Ive told a lot about my life. Plus, I keep near about everything. My kids accuse me of being a hoarder, whatever that means. Growing up poor, in the Depression, I learned to hold on to things. So, all my life Ive been saving things from my fans, from my travels, and from my career. Clothes, letters, cards, furniture, awards, little presents from all over the worldyou name it, I got it.

About twenty years ago we got serious and built a big, beautiful museum out near my house so fans who visit have somewhere to go and learn about my life and career. Tim Cobb designed it. We call it the Coal Miners Daughter Museum. Its out on my property in Hurricane Mills, right across from the replica of the house I grew up in that they built for the Coal Miners Daughter movie. You can go inside and walk around. Its fully furnished and looks just like it did when I was growing up, right down to the cup of tea sitting there on the kitchen table where my momma used to read tea leaves. You can walk from there over to my museum. Its big18,000 square feet! Inside Ive got a bunch of my stage outfitsfrom the very first stage dress I ever made to my ball gowns, all my awards, and every single one of my records. The whole place is real interactive, so you can walk onto my first tour bus and see a replica of the one-room schoolhouse I used to go to back in Kentucky. Ive featured special friends and family, like Conway Twitty, my sister Crystal Gayle, and of course, Patsy Cline. Theres always something new to see cause Tim keeps the displays fresh. People say it rivals Gracelandits just farther out in the country, just like me.

Even in a place this size, we still dont have room to show everything. Tim went back into storage the other day to find a dress Barbra Streisand gave me. Hes got everything cataloged and real orderly and knows where everything is. He hauled out a bunch of big old scrapbooks. Boy, those things just took me back to 1975. Theyd been in a closet in the big house for years, but then we had a house fire when a candle tipped over on the porch. I burned my hand trying to put that thing out with a pillow. Anyway, I guess somebodyd rescued them and moved them and I never even paid much attention. I pulled back the cover of one and I could smell the smoke. The pages stuck together, singed around the edges. Inside were hundreds of clippingsinterviews and articles about me. Id forgotten most all of them, to tell the truth. But what about took my breath away were the odds and ends that I had tucked in there, too, like a handwritten note from my dear friend, country music legend Ernest Tubb, a program from a White House dinner, and an invitation to the Oscars. Those little mementos took me right back.