NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The name Cline has been so important to country music. You'll immediately think Patsy Cline. However, there's another woman carrying that last name, no relation to Patsy. Her contribution to country music history is vital too.
There's this old recording with a deep importance to the Fairfield community in Sumner County. In it, you hear the playing of a hammered dulcimer.
"It's been an incredible blessing to have been in the Cline family," said Tribby Graves Briley, sitting with cousin Dot Denning Gudger.
The two of them listened to that old recording. Their grandmother was the woman playing in it; Kitty Cora Denning Cline.
Their Grandma Cline used small wooden mallets to play the hammered dulcimer. With it, she even made history.
It was 1925 when the the radio broadcasts began that would later become known as the Grand Ole Opry. It was then WSM Barn Dance, and it caught the attention of Dot and Tribby's Grandma Cline.
"She had nine children," Dot said. "Times were hard, and she heard they were interviewing people for the Opry. She went to Nashville, interviewed, and they accepted her."
With that, Grandma Cline became the Opry's first female solo performer.
The trips began. She'd pay a neighbor to drive her from the Fairfield community down to the WSM studio in Nashville.
"It wasn't proper for a woman to be in the car with a man, so she got her cousin to go as well," Dot said. "She went 50 miles every Saturday night."
People would gather around the radio and listen.
"It was a huge entertainment for the people who lived in communities where there were no paved highways," Dot continued. "Her little hands were just as nimble as they could be."
In the early hours of the next morning, Grandma Cline would travel back to Fairfield. She was paid one dollar for every minute she performed on air.
"It was the Depression," Tribby said. "She had a goal, and she wanted to better her life. Women just didn't venture out from their homes to make a career in music, and she did."
"She had lots of love letters," Dot smiled. "My grandfather was there one night. A fella had written in, wanting her to marry him. She said, 'I don't think I can. My husband's sittin' right here!'"
That's how it went weekly for a long time; travel to Nashville, come home to Fairfield.
"She was invited back time after time after time!" Tribby said.
Then one day in 1934 the trips ended.
"She saw an accident," Dot said. "A car had gone off the Cumberland River Bridge. That scared her to death, and she didn't go back."
Over the years, the Opry did invite her to come back for visits.
"We wanted her to go and be recognized," Dot said. "I said, 'grandma, I'll take you down there!' She said no, she didn't want to go."
The memory of that wreck was still too much for her to go back to Nashville.
Grandma Cline lived the rest of her life close to Fairfield, though she did play music for her family. One day, when she was in her 90s, Grandma Cline was visited by someone from the Smithsonian. That special recording was made.
"If she hadn't seen that bad wreck, she may have truly been a global name," Tribby said.
Kitty Cora Denning Cline died in 1973. She was 96. The legacy of the Opry's first female solo performer lives on in so many ways.
"Many, many of our people still play music without having any training, just do it on their own," Dot said.
Dot is a natural piano player while Tribby sings and plays guitar. A musical ability is all through the family including grandson Rex Graves and great-grandchildren Meggie Briley and Ben Briley. Ben placed 11th on the 13th season of American Idol.
A Cora Cline Memorial Highway now leads into the Fairfield community in Sumner County. Grandma Cline's hammered dulcimer is today in the archives of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and will likely go back on display later this year.
"She lived in a time when she saw horse and buggies to astronauts, and now she's famous on the internet," Tribby said. "She believed if you have a dream, go for it and don't let nothing stand in your way. I am very proud to be her granddaughter. I'm very proud of the legacy she leaves behind. This is for you, Grandma."
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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