Posted on 10/04/2022 7:49:16 AM PDT by Borges
Loretta Lynn, the acclaimed singer and songwriter whose ascent from a small Kentucky coal-mining community to national country music stardom became the stuff of Hollywood legend, has died. She was 90.
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Lynn’s family said she died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. In May 2017, she suffered a stroke that ended her touring career.
Lynn’s life story was memorably told in the Michael Apted-directed Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) based on her 1976 memoir. Sissy Spacek won the best actress Oscar and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of the singer, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame since 1988.
Survivors include younger sister (and fellow country star) Crystal Gayle.
Beyond the dramatic particulars of her life, Lynn, who recorded 16 No. 1 country singles and won three Grammy Awards, was among music’s groundbreaking female singing stars.
She became one of the industry’s brightest luminaries in an era when men dominated country. She wrote much of her hit material, and it was sharply penned stuff, crafted from the point of view of a woman (usually a married one) who would take no guff from her man. And she did not shrink from controversial subject matter.
She was born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1932, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. “I’m always making Butcher Hollow sound like it’s the most backward part of the United States — and I think maybe it is,” she wrote in her autobiography.
The second eldest of coal miner Melvin Webb’s eight children, she grew up in sometimes dire poverty in the heart of the Great Depression. One of the few distractions she had was the radio; 11-year-old Loretta became enamored of the Grand Ole Opry and its early female star, Molly O’Day.
At age 15, she married Oliver Lynn, known by his nicknames “Doolittle” and “Mooney.” A year later, the couple moved from Kentucky to Custer, Washington, a town of a few hundred near Bellingham. By 18, Lynn had four children. (Two more would follow.)
Encouraged by her husband, Lynn began singing in Washington clubs. In 1950, Don Grashey of tiny Zero Records arranged a session for her in Los Angeles. Backed by top-flight guitarists Speedy West and Roy Lanham, she cut her composition “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” inspired in part by Kitty Wells’ 1952 hit “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonky Angels.”
With tireless promotion by the country neophyte, the song became a surprise hit, and Lynn was soon touring with the Wilburn Brothers and appearing on the Grand Ole Opry. She was signed by the major label Decca Records in 1961, and the title of her first top 10 hit for the company harbingered the rest of her career: “Success.”
A run of chart-topping country singles followed, sung in a warm voice but taking a tough-minded stance. Just the names of many of these hits telegraph Lynn’s point of view: “You Ain’t Woman Enough” (No. 2, 1966), “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” (No. 1, 1966), “What Kind of a Girl (Do You Think I Am?)” (No. 5, 1967), “Fist City” (No. 1, 1968) and “Your Squaw Is on the Warpath” (No. 3, 1968).
Other signature tunes by Lynn took an autobiographical tack; these included 1965’s “Blue Kentucky Girl” (memorably covered by Emmylou Harris) and 1970’s No. 1 single “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
In 1971 — the year she charted her biggest solo hit, “One’s On the Way” — Lynn began a productive collaboration with labelmate Conway Twitty. The pair’s No. 1 duet “After the Fire Is Gone” was followed by a dozen more top 10 country singles.
In 1975, as the national debate over women’s liberation continued to roil, Lynn incited comment with her song “The Pill.” The tune, which reached No. 5 on the country chart, was, in her words, “about how the man keeps the woman barefoot and pregnant over the years.” It was one of the best examples of the no-nonsense spunk of her songwriting.
Lynn continued to chart records through the ’80s, but her recording career slowed and then stopped.
She re-entered the scene at age 70 in 2004 through the agency of an unlikely fan and collaborator: Jack White, then of the popular Detroit garage-punk act The White Stripes. They teamed on the Interscope album Van Lear Rose, which was designed to reignite her career just as Johnny Cash’s series of American Records albums had returned him to prominence.
The album became the biggest of her career, and the Lynn-White duet “Portland Oregon” received serious radio play.
RIP. Incredible talent and life.
Bump
Rest In Peace, Loretta.
I'm a Honky Tonk Girl (1960)
90. must have been the good Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey.
RIP you done good! You will be missed.
RIP Loretta
Imagine that, a talented woman who had an amazing career yet stayed committed to her marriage (to a difficult man) and devoted to her family.
Good material for a ...country song.
One night about 45 years ago I slept in Loretta’s livingroom at her Hawaii beach house.
No, not invited. She wasn’t even there. It was under construction, so I drove my truck under the just-built deck, climbed from my roof onto the deck. and rolled out my sleeping bag.
She was a good conservative and a real American.
Sadly, you cannot read even an obit these days without it being focused on feminism. What a strong woman she was! Did she stay married? Was she preceded in death by her husband? No. She was a woman who wouldn’t take no guff from men. That was more important than her wonderful songs apparently.
RIP
I wasn’t a fan but her well known songs “Coal Miners Daughter” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man”......have been heard across the nation for years.
Like “Dolly” it’s impossible for anyone to escape hearing their music.
Folks stopped at her childhood home- very small. The caretaker was very pleasant and Informative. Neat little photo worthy Appalachian type home.
Olivia Newton-John last month; Loretta Lynn this month. We are losing all the great female singers!
RIP, Coal Miner’s Daughter.
I went to a three day motorcycle rally at her ranch many years ago. Exceptional place, very beautiful surroundings. Quite a party it was with a private concert by Loretta She was a great talent. RIP Loretta.
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