Country music has sometimes been described as the authentic blue-collar voice of the southern United States. In the last half-century, no singer and songwriter has done more to substantiate this claim than Loretta Lynn, who died at the age of 90. In the words of music historian Bill Malone, Lynn’s songs “spoke for working-class women in a way that wasn’t ardent. feminist could never do”.
The self-penned Success (1962) was his first Top 10 country hit and was followed by a slew of No. 1 singles on the US country chart, including, in 1966, Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’. ‘ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind), an assertive song that cemented her reputation as the provocative voice of the everyday woman.
The inspiration for some of Lynn’s compositions was her unstable relationship with her husband, Oliver Lynn, whose nickname was Mooney, a reference to his involvement in moonshine or illegal liquor. But sometimes her songs addressed “the other woman”, for example You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man) from 1966.
Her other hits dealt with topics such as the human cost of the Vietnam War (Dear Uncle Sam in 1966 – a song she covered during the Iraq War); motherhood (One’s on the Way, composed by humorist Shel Silverstein, in 1971); divorce (classified X, from 1973); and contraception (La Pilule, banned by many radio stations when it was released in 1975).
The most clearly autobiographical of his hit songs was Coal Miner’s Daughter, a No. 1 hit on the country charts in 1970, and one of his few records to chart on the mainstream American charts. Lynn said the song “told everyone I could write about something other than marriage issues”, and it was chosen as the name for her 1976 autobiography, as well as the 1980 film about her life. from rags to riches, who brought his story to an international audience.
She was born in the impoverished mining town of Butcher Hollow in Kentucky’s Appalachia, the second of eight children of coal miner Ted Webb. Her mother, Clara (née Butcher), who was of part Cherokee ancestry, named her daughter after a favorite movie star, Loretta Young. Loretta was encouraged to sing at family gatherings and in church during her childhood. Two of her sisters (including Brenda Gail, who found success as Crystal Gayle) and a brother, Willie “Jay” Lee, also became professional musicians.
In 1948, three months before her 16th birthday, Loretta married Mooney. After losing their mining jobs, the couple moved to the logging town of Custer, Washington. Mooney worked as a garage mechanic and farmhand while Lynn combined raising a family with singing and playing guitar with her own band. She gave birth to four of her six children before she was 19.
In 1960, she recorded her own song, I’m a Honky Tonk Girl, for a local label, Zero. Although not a hit, it caught the attention of established country artists, the Wilburn Brothers, who arranged for Lynn to appear on the Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville, the hub of the industry. country music.
Lynn soon landed a recording contract with veteran producer Owen Bradley, who had spearheaded the careers of Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline, both of whom had inspired Lynn. Bradley said “Kitty was the abused housewife, and Loretta was the housewife who wasn’t going to take anything away from anyone.” Lynn became friends with Cline, who died in a plane crash in 1963; she paid homage to him with a 1977 album of Cline’s songs, including a popular version of She’s Got You.
In addition to her hit records, Lynn’s fame was based on relentless touring with her own band. She believed that “if you’re going to record, you have to be there with the people who buy your records”. She regularly played around 125 shows a year, traveling 150,000 miles a year in her custom tour bus. In the late 1960s, her backing vocalists included her sisters Peggy Sue and Brenda Gail, whose first hit as Crystal Gayle – I’ve Cried (The Blue Right Out of My Eyes) – was composed by Lynn.
In 1969 Lynn was hired to play the first international country music festival to be held at Wembley Stadium in London. She and veteran country star Conway Twitty performed a few songs together and the response was good enough to persuade them to record a series of duets, several of which became hits. The most original was the chart-topping As soon as I hang up the phone, which was designed as a phone call from Conway to Lynn. In 1972, the duo won a Grammy Award for their recording After the Fire Is Gone.
Lynn’s autobiography, co-written with journalist George Vecsey, was a graphic evocation of her childhood in Appalachia and topped the New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks. Greater fame followed when the book was filmed starring Sissy Spacek as Lynn and Tommy Lee Jones as Mooney. Spacek’s performance won her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1981.
Lynn began releasing fewer records in the 80s and early 90s as she spent time caring for Mooney, who died in 1996 from diabetes. In 1993, she produced Honky Tonk Angels, a seminal album with the other great ladies of country, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette. Like Parton, Lynn was an astute businesswoman. She owned large amounts of real estate in the town of Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, where she ran a ranch that includes a replica of the Butcher Hollow cabin she grew up in.
Lynn published a second volume of autobiography, Still Woman Enough, in 2002 and a cookbook – You’re Cookin’ It Country – two years later. There were occasional albums over the next few years, including Van Lear Rose (2004), produced by Jack White of the White Stripes, and Grammy-nominated Full Circle (2016), which included duets with Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello. Her latest studio album, also called Still Woman Enough, was released in 2021. She continued to tour despite health issues that included knee surgery and hospital treatment for pneumonia.
Lynn has received more awards at the annual Country Music Association ceremonies than any other singer and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988. In 2013, she received the Presidential Medal of Honor from Barack Obama.
She is survived by her children Cissy, Ernest, Peggy and Patsy, and over 20 grandchildren. Her son Jack died in 1984 and her daughter Betty Sue in 2013.
Loretta Lynn, singer and songwriter, born April 14, 1932; died on October 4, 2022
