Loretta Lynn. Photo via publicist.
Loretta Lynn, a self-made country legend who told the stories of everyday people through her plainspoken songs, passed away in her sleep Tuesday morning at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She was 90 years old.
Lynn’s family confirmed the news in a statement to the Associated Press. “Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” they wrote, asking for privacy during their grieving process and promising that a memorial service would soon be announced.
Born Loretta Webb in the northeastern Kentucky mining town of Butcher Hollow on April 14, 1932, Lynn was the eldest of Clara Marie “Clary” and Melvin Theodore “Ted” Webb’s seven children. She married Oliver Vanetta “Doolittle” Lynn when she was 15 years old, having met him only one month earlier. They’d go on to move west to the logging community of Custer, Washington, have six children — three of which were born before her 19th birthday — and stay married for the next 48 years until his death in 1996. He was a major supporter of her music career, buying her first guitar and acting as her talent manager throughout her early years, but their marriage was tumultuous, and Lynn said in her later years that he was a lifelong alcoholic, and at times violent and unfaithful.
Lynn began singing in local clubs in the late 1950s and signed her first recording deal in 1960 with Zero Records. Shortly thereafter, she signed with Decca Records. Her first number one hit was 1967’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind).” Over the course of her long career, she’d record 23 more — as a solo artist and in collaboration with other artists, most notably Conway Twitty — including “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” “Fist City,” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which tells the tale of her humble upbringing. In 1976, she used the title for her bestselling autobiography, which was made into a movie starring Sissy Spacek in 1980.
Though she often claimed to be apolitical, Lynn was vocal about her opinions on social issues throughout the years. Her 1975 hit “The Pill” (penned by T. D. Bayless) told the story of a wife and mother who felt liberated by birth control, and 1972’s “Rated X” questioned the double standards divorced women face. Both were banned from radio airplay. Later in her career, she expressed more conservative sentiments. She campaigned for the first President Bush in 1988 and expressed her support for Donald Trump at her shows during his 2016 presidential run.
In 2017, Lynn suffered a stroke at home, and she broke her hip the following new year’s day, effectively ending her touring career. In 2020, she published a book titled Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust about her friendship with Patsy Cline.