CNN
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“Coal Miner’s Daughter” Loretta Lynn has died. His brave lyrics and witty, soothing voice made her the queen of country music for her 70 years. she was 90 years old.
Lynn’s family said in a statement to CNN that she died Tuesday at her home in Tennessee.
“Our dear mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning in her sleep at her beloved ranch home in Hurricane Mills.
They sadly asked for privacy and said a memorial service would be announced at a later date.
Lynn, who had no formal musical training, spent hours each day singing and singing to lull her baby to sleep, but was known to churn out perfectly textured songs in just a few minutes. . She just wrote what she knew.
She spent much of her childhood in poverty, began having children by the age of 17, and spent years married to a man prone to drinking and cheating. Lynn’s life was filled with a wealth of experiences most country stars of her time didn’t have, but her female fans knew them well.
“So when you sing a country song about women struggling to keep things going, you could say I was there,” she wrote in her first memoir, Coal Miner’s Daughter. “Like I say, I know what it’s like to be pregnant, nervous and needy.”
Lynn had hits with hard-hitting songs like “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” and “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”. and topped the country charts in 1966, becoming the first female country singer to write a number one hit.
Her songs told family history, skewered lousy husbands, and sympathized with women, wives and mothers everywhere. Songs like her “Rated X” and “The Pill” were banned from radio despite becoming her beloved classics.
“I wasn’t the first woman in country music,” Lynn said. Esquire “I was the first to stand there and say what I think, what life is.”
Born Loretta Webb in 1932, she was one of eight Webb children who grew up in the Appalachian mining town of Butcher Hollow in Van Leer, Kentucky. Growing up, Lynn sang in church and at home, even though her father protested that everyone in Butcher Hollow could hear.
Her house had little money. But those early years were some of her fondest memories, as she recounts in her 1971 hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” That’s the only thing my dad was sure of. ”
When Loretta was a teenager, she met the love of her life in Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, whom she affectionately called “Doo.” The two married when Lynn was 15, and after the Associated Press discovered in 2012 that Lynn was several years older than she had stated in her memoir, the facts came to light and Lynn was married. In the same year I gave birth to the first of six children.
“When I got married, I didn’t even know what pregnancy meant.” Lynn saidproduced four children in the first four years of their marriage, and a set of twins a few years later.
“I was five months pregnant when I went to the doctor, and he said, ‘You’re going to have a baby.’ I said, ‘I can’t have a baby.’ He said, “Aren’t you married?” He said, “Do you sleep with your husband?” ‘Loretta, you’re going to have a baby. Trust me.’ And I did.
The couple soon left for Washington State in search of work. At first, music was not a priority for the young mother. While she worked every day, she mostly picked strawberries in Washington state and her baby sat on a blanket nearby.
But when her husband put the baby to sleep by listening to her hum, he said her voice was better than the girl singers on the radio. He bought her a $17 Harmony her guitar and got her to gig at her local tavern.
It was in 1960 that she recorded her debut single, “Honky Tonk Girl”. She then brought up the song and she performed it on country music stations across the United States.
After years of hard work and parenting, telling stories on her guitar seemed like a break.
“It was easy to sing,” Lynn said of NPR Terry Gross in 2010. ”
The success of her first single landed Lynn on stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and she soon signed a deal with Decca Records. She soon befriended her country star Patsy, her Klein, and until her shocking death in her plane crash in 1963, she loved country through her stardom fame and fashion. led her
Klein “was my only girlfriend at the time. She took care of me. I still miss her,” Lynn said. denver post in 2009. I was shocked because I never expected someone like Patsy Cline to tell you you had a hit song. I put out a record right after she passed away and it was a hit. ”
Lin’s struggles and successes became legends, recurring stories of youth, naivety and poverty.
From “Fist City” to “You’re Lookin’ at Country,” Lynn always sang from the heart. She has Doo scolding women for her interest and honoring her Appalachian roots. But her music was far from conventional.
With songs like “Rated X,” about the stigma fun-loving women face after divorce, and “The Pill,” which toasts women to their newfound freedom thanks to birth control, she’s been a voice for conservative nations. accused the ruling class of Otherwise I would have swallowed it like popcorn,” Lynn wrote in her memoir.
She chronicled her early life in her 1976 best-selling memoir, Coal Miner’s Daughter, co-authored with George Vexy. The 1980 biopic of the same name won actress Sissy Spacek an Academy Award and helped spread Lynn’s fame. Her success with her Lynn has also helped launch the music careers of her sisters Peggy Sue Wright and Crystal Gayle.
The legend of Lynn faced questions in 2012. Associated Press Census records, birth certificates, and marriage licenses indicated Lynn was three years older than most biographies state. We made the oft-repeated narrative about marriage and motherhood less extreme.
“I never thought I’d be a role model,” Lynn said. San Antonio Express – News 2010. I didn’t understand why other people didn’t write down what they knew. ”
Lynn always credited her husband for giving her the confidence to first step onto the stage as a young performer. She has also spoken in her interviews and in her music about the pain he caused in her nearly 50 years of marriage.Doolittle Lynn said after years of complications from heart disease and diabetes, Died in 1996.
In his 2002 memoir, Still Woman Enough, Lynn wrote that he was an alcoholic and that he hit her even though he cheated on her and hit her back. But she stayed with him until he died, and she told NPR in 2010 that “he’s out there somewhere” with every song she’s written.
“We fight one day and love the next day. So… for me, it’s a good relationship,” she told NPR. Anyway, the relationship between the two is not that great.”
Lynn has won numerous awards throughout her career, including three Grammy Awards and numerous awards from the Academy of Country Music. She won Grammy Awards for her 1971 duet with Conway Twitty, “After the Fire Is Gone,” and for her 2004 album, Van Lear Rose. This was White’s collaboration with Jack White of Her Stripes and introduced her to a new generation of her fans.
She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988, and in 1998, her song “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. She received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
President Barack Obama Lynn said, “I gave a generation a voice by singing things nobody wanted to talk about, saying things nobody wanted to think about.”
Her career and legend continued to grow in later years as she recorded new songs, toured steadily and attracted a loyal audience well into her 80s. Lynn’s home in Hurricane Her Mills, Tennessee has a museum and ranch.
“Work rejuvenates,” she told Esquire in 2007. And when I do, it will be on stage. That’s it. ”
Rin was hospitalized 2017 after stroke at her house. The following year she broke her hip. She was forced to stop touring due to her health.
In early 2021, turning 89, she recorded her 50th album, Still Woman Enough.
The title song, which she sang alongside successors Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire, sounded like a mission statement that captured the spirit of her career.
“I’m still fully feminine and still have what it takes.
I know how to love, lose and survive.
Not much I haven’t seen, I haven’t tried.
I got knocked down, but I never got out of the fight.
I am strong, but I am gentle.
Wise, but I’m tough.
And when it comes to love, let me tell you.
I’m still feminine enough. ”