Loretta Lynn, the award-winning country music queen and the daughter of a coal miner from Kentucky, died at the age of 90 on Tuesday, October 4.
A statement by her family said that the talented singer/songwriter died in her Hurricane Mills home in Tennessee.
The country music legend already had four children by the time she launched her singing career in the 1960s, with her songs reflecting her pride and passion for her rural southeastern upbringing. Her songs mostly revolved around love and life, and they were wildly successful from the 1960s through to the 1990s.
Lynn was fearless in her songwriting. She made her songs about a tough woman living through the misogynistic world of men. She sang about some things other musicians avoided writing about, like intimacy, love, unfaithful partners, divorce, and birth control, all of which were controversial topics, especially for women at the time.
Lynn had extraordinary success in the decade of 1960 and 1970 with “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “The Pill,” “Ones on the Way,” “Fist City,” and “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin (with lovin’ on your mind)” among many other songs.
In a 2016 interview, Lynn said that she did not write for men and wrote her songs based on what she wanted to hear and what she thought other women would have loved to hear, and the men ended up loving her songs too.
She released her autobiography, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” in 1976, which was very successful and became one of the New York Times list’s best-selling books. Filmmakers made the book into a movie in 1980, which got an Academy Award nomination for best picture.
Lynn released the Van Lear Rose album in 2004; in 2005, the album won her a Grammy for Best Album. Jack White produced the album, and Lynn wrote all 13 songs.
The hit singer was the second born in a family of eight children, and she was born and raised in Butcher Holler, a coal mining community in Johnson, Kentucky. She grew up in a musical family. Her mother loved to play the guitar, and her dad played the banjo. Crystal Gayle, Lynn’s younger sister, is also an award-winning country music artist, and her daughter Patsy Lynn Russell also wrote and produced some of her songs.
Lynn was married at the young age of 15 to Oliver Lynn. He was instrumental in getting her to sing professionally, helping her get her first recording deal, and performing at the Grand Ole Opry.
She was a member of the Country Music and Songwriters Hall of Fame and won four Grammys. Even after a stroke in 2017, that prevented her from touring, she was still an artist by heart, and she released her latest and last solo album in 2021, titled “Still Woman Enough.”
Loretta and Oliver were married for 50 years before he passed away in 1996. Six children and 21 grandchildren survive.