Cooperative Living January 2014 - 34

a good jumping-off
point. Occupied by both
Federals and
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charts. " She was the first crossover artist in
American music history, " Summers explains.
Her success as a working-class girl rising
to stardom is spellbinding, but her personal
life was often rocky. She married at 21,
divorced two years later, though she kept her
husband's name as her stage name. Then she
had an affair with her manager, leading to
the end of his marriage, though the two
never wed. Cline was ultimately happily
married to Charlie Dick, three years her junior,
in 1957. (You can, in fact, still visit the
nostalgic department store where Dick
bought his wedding suit - Bell's on
Loudoun Street!) But even as she rocketed to
fame with hits like " Crazy " and " I Fall to
Pieces, " her run was short-lived. In 1963, she
died in a plane crash.
Dozens of photographs, memorabilia, and
a host of her dresses and costumes are on
display right now at the Museum of the
Shenandoah Valley. Among them is her
famous red cowgirl dress, which the museum's
director of marketing and public relations,
Julie Armel, says is covered with 3,000
rhinestones that Cline and her mother
applied by hand. " Most of these
dresses, " says Armel, " are on view
for the first time publicly. "
CIVIL WAR WINCHESTER
If you're looking to experience
the 150th anniversary of the
American Civil War, Winchester is
Confederates at various
points during the war,
the city changed hands
more than 70 times during
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,
which saw heavy action
in both 1862 and 1864, at
the Winchester-Frederick
County Visitor Center's
Civil War Orientation
Center. The city of
Winchester is part of the
Shenandoah Valley Battlefields
National Historic District
(www.shenandoahatwar.org).
A centerpiece of Winchester's Civil War
history is Stonewall Jackson's Headquarters,
a Gothic-style cottage on Braddock Street
that served as the general's headquarters during
the winter of 1861-'62 while he prepared
for his famous Valley Campaign.
If you're lucky, you might land Joanne
Happ as a tour guide. " That's 'happy' without
the 'y,' " she notes, as she tugs on her
white gloves, dressed to the hilt in full antebellum
regalia. Happ's interest in Civil War
history is fully justified. Her family, the
Roulettes, owned three farms on the battlefield
at Antietam. Happ is a font of historical
tidbits and tells me at the start of our tour,
" Sometimes Winchester changed hands
more than once in the same day. "
A centerpiece of Winchester's Civil
War history is Stonewall Jackson's
Headquarters (above). Joanne Happ
(right), a tour guide at the HQ, is a
font of historical knowledge about
Jackson and the war.
Happ is a
fond admirer of
Jackson, particularly his dogged determination,
not just as an officer but as a person.
" He graduated from West Point 17th in his
class with only a third-grade education, " she
remarks. " He believed he could do anything
he wanted if he put his mind to it. "
Full of interesting trivia about the general
who died of pneumonia following his
wounding at the Battle of Chancellorsville in
1863, Happ tells me Jackson actually had
sandy brown hair, not the dark hair his portraits
so often show. To prove her point, she
shows me a lock of his hair in an exhibit
case. " Most artists paint him with dark hair, "
she says. " Maybe it's because they think it
looks more masculine. "
Jackson's headquarters is loaded with
carefully preserved artifacts from the general's
military campaigns, including the prayer
table he took everywhere with him, his telegraph
table, adjutant's desk, and camp chair.
And did you know actress Mary Tyler
Moore has a connection to Jackson's headquarters?
She is the great-granddaughter of
Lt. Col. Lewis Moore, who owned the house
when Jackson made it his winter quarters.
Moore actually paid to have the original
wallpaper in the home's parlor, which served
as Jackson's office, reproduced.
Shops and restaurants occupy the first
floors, while apartments occupy the upper
stories of many of the buildings on the
Loudon Street Pedestrian Mall (left). The
Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
(above) 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.
32
HEAD DOWNTOWN
Even if you're not into Civil War history
or country music, Winchester still has plenty
to offer. Don't leave town without paying a
visit to the historic downtown district and
the Loudoun Street Pedestrian Mall, in particular.
This four-block renovation project
cost Winchester $7.1 million, but it's been
well worth it, according to Downtown
Manager Jennifer Bell. " What we have here is
Cooperative Living/January 2014
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Cooperative Living January 2014

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