'Pieces' of Patsy

March 5, 1963.

Sharon Haynes was only 8 years old. Still, "I remember the morning of the crash," she says, "my parents getting up talking about how they had found the airplane that had crashed; that Patsy Cline was killed."

Then a pint-sized fan of the late country singer ("Crazy," "Walkin' After Midnight," "I Fall to Pieces"), Haynes had no idea what impact Cline's tragic life would have on hers.

The Tennessee native has made a career of singing Cline's tunes -- alongside the star's former backup singers, The Jordanaires -- in "The Original Tribute To Pasty Cline," which Haynes and the legendary quartet have performed for eight years in venues throughout the United States.

The show, which she calls "a musical memory," has settled in for an extended run at the Gold Coast hotel-casino through Nov. 15.

Besides paying homage to Cline, the production also tips its hat to Elvis Presley, with whom the Jordanaires sang and performed on stage and screen for 15 years.

More than three decades since Cline's death, Haynes says the singer and her music are as popular as ever. "It is just timeless, basically," she says. "There are just so many Patsy Cline fans that just simply loved her that never got to hear her live in concert."

Though 43-year-old Haynes looks a bit like Cline, and sounds a lot like Cline, don't call her a Cline impersonator.

"I'm just a fan of hers, but I also want to be myself," the mother of two adult sons says. That way, "I can share more of Pasty with (the audience), and it doesn't give them a funny feeling as far as thinking, 'Well, she thinks she's her.'

"I can't wear her shoes. I'm just glad to share a close image that they can appreciate."

The same goes for their vocal similarities. "Through my life, I've never consciously tried to sing or sound like her," Haynes contends. "Maybe it's because I love her music so much that that's the way I learned to sing," she says.

Even when Haynes croons her own original works -- country and contemporary gospel songs to be included on her first album due out next year -- "I still sound somewhat like her simply because we both sing with a lot of power."

Cline's daughter, Julie Fudge, was in the audience when the "Original Tribute" played Nashville in 1990. "She loved it," Haynes says. "In fact, she said I sang her mother's stuff better than anyone she had ever heard."

Haynes says that Fudge, who was a toddler when Cline died, told a reporter that night: " 'When I saw (Haynes) up on stage doing my mama and sounding like the records ... I could imagine what would have been one of my mama's concerts.' (Fudge) said that was the first time she had ever had that sensation."

Tickets for 8 p.m. performances of "The Original Patsy Cline Tribute" are $21.95 and may be purchased by calling the Gold Coast box office at 367-7111.

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