Born, Virginia Patterson Hensley (would she have sounded different had she not changed her name?) in Winchester, Virginia, United States, she received her first contract as a country singer in 1953 and despite her short life, would become one of the most influential singers in the history of American popular music. Cline was the last name of her first husband, Gerald Cline, a construction industry mogul, whom she married in 1953 and divorced in 1957.

That same year, Cline married Charles Allen Dick, who worked as a linotype operator for the Winchester Star. They had a daughter, Julia Simadore Dick (b. 1958; now known as Julie Fudge) and a son, Allen Randolph “Randy” Dick (b. 1961).