Loretta Lynn, a pioneering female star in country music and survivor of poverty who rose to become one the most iconic singer-songwriters ever known as “The Queen Of Country Music” has passed away at 90 years old.
One of the first women to rise as a country vocalist, Lynn was memorably portrayed by Sissy Spacek in an Oscar-winning turn.
Her voice was as powerful and vibrant in the 1960s (when she topped charts) or 1970s, ringing up 11 No. 1 hits on her own–and another five chart-toppers with Conway Twitty! In all, Loretta achieved 51 top 10 country singles during that time period thanks to an impressive career spanning many years both singing solo acoustically before audiences large & small.
Unlike most of her contemporaries, she began working on her songs even before achieving commercial success, with her first chart hit, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” coming in 1960. Many of Loretta’s songs addressed traditional honky-tonk themes such as infidelity and divorce, but from a woman’s point of view. She addressed many topics ranging from the Vietnam War to contraception.
While her hits dried up after the early ’80s, she remained a beloved figure.
Many people thought Lynn served as the model for Barbara Jean, the fictional yet tragic country star in Robert Altman’s 1975 film “Nashville.” Singer-actress Ronee Blakely even received Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for her portrayal of Barbara Jean.
She recorded a new album, “Van Lear Rose” with Jack White of the White Stripes, which won two Grammys and brought a new audience of young rock listeners to her music.
Loretta was born Loretta Webb in Butcher Holler, Ky. She was the second of eight children. Her younger sister Brenda Gail rose to fame as the country star Crystal Gayle. Her father passed away from black lung disease, as he was a coal miner. This explains the “coal miner’s daughter”.
At the age of 15, Loretta married Army vet and local moonshiner Oliver Lynn (if you’re a fan you’ll know him as “Doolittle” and “Mooney”. The couple left Kentucky to move to Washington state and raise four children together. Oliver encouraged Loretta to take up the guitar and sing, which led Lynn to performing in local clubs. In Tacoma, she was discovered by the Vancouver-based independent label Zero Records.
Loretta’s first single for Zero Records was “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” which was recorded in February 1960 in Hollywood. The song quickly shot up to Number 14 on the U.S. country chart and established Lynn as a hot new voice in country music.
After a while working as a demo artist and in-house songwriter for the Wilburn Brothers’ publishing company, Lynn and her husband decided to move to Nashville. Once there, she was signed by country music powerhouse Decca Records and placed under producer Owen Bradley’s wing.
In 1962, Lynn’s No. 6 single “Success” launched a series of hits that for a moment made her the only female country star who could rival Kitty Wells. (Her only competitor at the time, fellow Bradley artist Patsy Cline, died in a plane crash in March 1963.)
Although her songs were often characterized by their hard edges, Lynn recorded a top-10 hit with “Before I’m Over You” (No. 4, 1963), “Wine Women and Song” (No. 3, 1964) and “Happy Birthday” (both No. 3, 1964). She was also memorably linked to her hero Ernest Tubb in a series of early duets.
She found her stride in the late 1960s with a number of enormous hits, several of which she wrote herself and some of which were inspired by her frequently wayward spouse. She began 1966 with a topical Vietnam protest song, “Dear Uncle Sam” (No. 4), and a razor-sharp “You Ain’t Woman Enough” (No. 2) before hitting #1 for the first time that year with her highly personal composition “Don’t Come Home a’Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” “Fist City” (1968) and “Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)” followed it to success.
“Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the autobiographical song that gave her memoir its title, reached No. 1 in 1970; her longest-running hit, “One’s On the Way” (No. 1 for 16 weeks), followed a year later.
In the same year, Lynn was paired with Conway Twitty for the first time, one of Decca’s hitmakers. Their 14 chart singles reached number one five times between 1971 and 1975: “After the Fire Is Gone” (a Grammy winner for best country duo/group performance), “Lead Me On,” “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man,” and lastly, “As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone”.
Lynn’s solo career kicked into high gear, and her songs began to chart again. With hits like the divorce-themed “Rated ‘X’” (No. 1, 1972) and the controversial birth control song “The Pill” (No. 5, 1975), Lynn continued to score as a solo artist with memorable singles such as the Patsy Cline cover “Out of My Head and Back in My Bed” (No. 1, 1977).
Michael Apted’s feature film “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was very successful, helping to make her a legend. However, over time her sound stopped being popular, and 1982 marked the last year she had a top 10 single with “I Lie.”
After leaving MCA Records in 1988, she took 16 years to return as a solo artist on a major label. However, she recorded with Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette for Columbia’s “Honky Tonk Angels” album in 1993.
Lynn focused on being a live performer, as well as running a studio and museum at her Hurricane Mills home and sponsoring an annual championship motocross race. She curtailed her concert appearances in the early 1990s to look after her ill husband, who died in August 1996; they had been married for 48 years.
Lynn’s career took a turn for the better when she collaborated with Jack White in 2004, at age 72. The two released 13 new songs on Lynn’s album “Van Lear Rose,” which went on to win a Grammy in 2005 for best country album. The single “Portland Oregon” off the same album also won Lynn and White the award for best country collaboration.
In 1988, Lynn was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and she was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2003. In 2010, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy.
Lynn’s late-career resurgence continued with the 2016 album “Full Circle,” co-produced by her daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash, Johnny Cash’s son, and it included duets with Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson.
“White Christmas Blue” (also in 2016), “Wouldn’t It Be Great?” (2018), and the final new album released during her lifetime, “Still Woman Enough,” included vocal collaborations with Tanya Tucker, Margo Price, Reba McEntire, and Carrie Underwood on remakes of some of her oldies as well as several recent songs. The new title for “Still Woman Enough” is a word play on a second autobiography she published in 2002.
She is survived by her three daughters and one son. Her other son, Jack, drowned accidentally in 1984, and daughter Betty Sue Lynn died in 2013. In total, Lynn had 17 grandchildren and four step-grandchildren. At least for a season, several members of the family joined Loretta in song. Lynn’s twin daughters Peggy and Patsy had a recording career as the Lynns in the late 1990s, releasing an album on Reprise that achieved some chart success. Tayla Lynn released an album entitled “Tayla Lynn Sings Loretta Lynn” in 2021.
