Country Legend Loretta Lynn Dies At 90
• Loretta Lynn, the coal miner’s daughter from Butcher Hollow, KY, whose frank songs about life and love as a woman in Appalachia pulled her out of poverty and made her a pillar of Country music over the course of a storied 60-year career, died Tuesday, Oct. 4 at the age of 90 at her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN.
As the AP reports, Lynn already had four children before launching her career in the early ’60s, and her songs reflected her pride in her rural Kentucky background. Her biggest hits came in the 1960s and ’70s, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “The Pill,” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Rated X” and “You’re Looking at Country.”
Coal Miner’s Daughter, which was also the title of her 1976 autobiography, was adapted into the 1980 movie of the same name, earning star Sissy Spacek a Best Actress Academy Award and the film was nominated for Best Picture. Lynn was 15 when she married Oliver “Mooney” Lynn, whom she called “Doo” or “Doolittle,” and it was he who urged her to sing professionally and helped promote her early career. Tommy Lee Jones portrayed Mooney Lynn in the biopic. With Mooney’s help, Lynn landed a recording contract with Decca Records, later MCA, and performed on the Grand Ole Opry stage. Lynn wrote her first hit single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” which was released in 1960.
Lynn also teamed up with Conway Twitty to form one of the most popular duos in country music with hits such as “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” and “After the Fire is Gone,” which earned them a Grammy Award.
Lynn won two Grammys in 2005 for her album Van Lear Rose, a collaboration with Jack White. In 2014 Lynn signed a multi-album deal with Legacy Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, and in 2016, returned to the charts with the Grammy-nominated Full Circle, the first in a series of critically acclaimed albums produced by her daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell, and John Carter Cash. In 2017, Lynn suffered a stroke that forced her to postpone her shows.
Loretta Lynn was the first woman to win both the CMA and ACM awards for Entertainer of the Year. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, and was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. She sold over 45 million albums worldwide.
Lynn and Mooney were married for nearly 50 years before he died in 1996. They had six children, 17 grandchildren and four step-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to the Loretta Lynn Foundation. Information about a memorial service/celebration of life will be made available at a later date. For more information, visit LorettaLynn.com. [Photo credit: Russ Harrington]
• Benztown has created an Audio Tribute to Loretta Lynn, voiced by Tessa Hall, written by Bill Royal, and produced by Adam Hood.
• Rowdy Yates and Compass Media Networks have produced a six-song retrospective on the life, career and music of Loretta Lynn. The feature is inventory-free, and available for digital download by emailing rowdy@rowdyyates.com.
