February 1960Patty came down the street, with everything she had in the world on her back, having waited, as she promised, until her mother died before setting out. The thing was, she wanted to be the next Skeeter Davis, she listened to WSM all the time, and she had this intuition that a Skeeter Davis with a real busting voice could make it. I mean, Debbie Reynolds covering "Am I That Easy To Forget", just because as all the magazines were saying, Eddie Fisher was leaving her for Elizabeth Taylor, I would leave her too, Elizabeth Taylor was just so beautiful, and everyone said she looked like Debbie Reynolds on the farm, and who wants to look like Debbie Reynolds, you get left, you surely do?
She went into the lunch counter, and sat down. The counterman said: "What can I do for you?"
"Well, now," And she had already thought about her supplies, "Could I have a Coke, and can you tell me the way to the Opry, of course?"
"Only if you endorse the place after you become a big star," he said, laughing his head off.
"Why, certainly," she said. "Does that mean it's free?"
He stopped laughing and looked at her.
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Chet and Patty were sitting in his office listening to the duet on his safety copy. She said,"I think it needs a third harmony part, like this," and she started in on it. She finished, and Chet picked up the phone. "We've already shipped the master to New York, but I guess we'll get it back. Of course, Skeeter will be mad as all hell."
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"You know," she said to Hank Lochlin, as they sat together in the studio, waiting and watching the session man doodling on his '57 Les Paul, "That is one handsome man."
"Oh," said Hank, "he comes from Hazard, near where you came from. Plays like greased lightning. Come on, let me introduce you."