Patsy Cline, who died in a plane crash the year before Parton got to town, had recently challenged the industry’s old-boy network, in which women almost never headlined shows. In 1960, she dared to wear pants onstage at the Grand Ole Opry and was called over by a male host to be reprimanded before the crowd. That was the sort of heat headstrong Cline was born to take and dish back, but she couldn’t beat economic injustice as she trailblazed for her gender. According to the PBS documentary American Masters: Patsy Cline, her first record deal, in the 1950s, gave her half the industry-standard
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