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a14 people & arts
Wednesday 5 OctOber 2022
Loretta Lynn, coal miner’s daughter and country queen, dies

By KRISTIN M. HALL AP En- Opry, country star Patsy
tertainment Writer Cline took Lynn under her
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — wing and mentored her
Loretta Lynn, the Kentucky during her early career.
coal miner’s daughter The Academy of Country
whose frank songs about Music chose her as the art-
life and love as a woman in ist of the decade for the
Appalachia pulled her out 1970s, and she was elected
of poverty and made her a to the Country Music Hall of
pillar of country music, has Fame in 1988. She won four
died. She was 90. Grammy Awards, was in-
In a statement provided ducted into the Songwriters
to The Associated Press, Hall of Fame in 2008, was
Lynn’s family said she died honored at the Kennedy
Tuesday at her home in Center Honors in 2003 and
Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. was awarded the Presi-
“Our precious mom, Loretta dential Medal of Freedom
Lynn, passed away peace- in 2013. In “Fist City,” Lynn
fully this morning, October threatens a hair-pulling
4th, in her sleep at home in fistfight if another woman
her beloved ranch in Hurri- won’t stay away from her
cane Mills,” the family said man: “I’m here to tell you,
in a statement. They asked gal, to lay off of my man/If
for privacy as they grieve you don’t want to go to Fist
and said a memorial will be City.” That strong-willed but
announced later. Country music great Loretta Lynn poses for a portrait in September 2000 in Nashville, Tenn. traditional country woman
Lynn already had four chil- Associated Press reappears in other Lynn
dren before launching her my of Country Music three en getting to visit and talk and rocking the babies to songs. In “The Pill,” a song
career in the early 1960s, years later. about how they were sleep. He’d say, ‘Loretta, about sex and birth con-
and her songs reflected her “It was what I wanted to raised, how different coun- shut that big mouth. Peo- trol, Lynn sings about how
pride in her rural Kentucky hear and what I knew oth- try music is now from what ple all over this holler can she’s sick of being trapped
background. er women wanted to hear, it was when they were hear you.’ And I said, ‘Dad- at home to take care of
As a songwriter, she craft- too,” Lynn told the AP in young. Sure makes me feel dy, what difference does babies: “The feelin’ good
ed a persona of a defiantly 2016. “I didn’t write for the good that Mama went it make? They are all my comes easy now/Since I’ve
tough woman, a contrast men; I wrote for us women. first so she could welcome cousins.’” got the pill,” she sang.
to the stereotypical image And the men loved it, too.” Loretta into the hollers of She wrote in her autobi- She moved to Hurricane
of most female country In 1969, she released her heaven!” ography that she was 13 Mills, Tennessee, outside
singers. The Country Music autobiographical “Coal Born Loretta Webb, the when she got married to of Nashville, in the 1990s,
Hall of Famer wrote fear- Miner’s Daughter,” which second of eight children, Oliver “Mooney” Lynn, but where she set up a ranch
lessly about sex and love, helped her reach her wid- she claimed her birthplace the AP later discovered complete with a replica of
cheating husbands, di- est audience yet. was Butcher Holler, near state records that showed her childhood home and a
vorce and birth control and “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the coal mining company she was 15. Tommy Lee museum that is a popular
sometimes got in trouble also the title of her 1976 town of Van Lear in the Jones played Mooney Lynn roadside tourist stop. The
with radio programmers for book, was made into a mountains of east Ken- in the biopic. dresses she was known for
material from which even 1980 movie of the same tucky. Her husband, whom she wearing are there, too.Lynn
rock performers once shied name. Sissy Spacek’s por- There really wasn’t a Butch- called “Doo” or “Doolittle,” knew that her songs were
away. trayal of Lynn won her an er Holler, however. She lat- urged her to sing profession- trailblazing, especially for
Her biggest hits came in Academy Award and the er told a reporter that she ally and helped promote country music, but she was
the 1960s and ‘70s, includ- film was also nominated for made up the name for the her early career. With his just writing the truth that so
ing “Coal Miner’s Daugh- best picture. purposes of the song based help, she earned a record- many rural women like her
ter,” “You Ain’t Woman Long after her commer- on the names of the fami- ing contract with Decca experienced.
Enough,” “The Pill,” “Don’t cial peak, Lynn won two lies that lived there. Records, later MCA, and “I could see that other
Come Home a Drinkin’ Grammys in 2005 for her Her daddy played the performed on the Grand women was goin’ through
(With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” album “Van Lear Rose,” banjo, her mama played Ole Opry stage. Lynn wrote the same thing, ‘cause I
“Rated X” and “You’re which featured 13 songs the guitar and she grew up her first hit single, “I’m a worked the clubs.
Looking at Country.” She she wrote, including “Port- on the songs of the Carter Honky Tonk Girl,” released I wasn’t the only one that
was known for appearing land, Oregon” about a Family. Her younger sis- in 1960. was livin’ that life and I’m
in floor-length, wide gowns drunken one-night stand. ter, Crystal Gayle, is also a She also teamed up with not the only one that’s
with elaborate embroidery “Van Lear Rose” was a col- Grammy-winning country singer Conway Twitty to gonna be livin’ today what
or rhinestones, many creat- laboration with rocker Jack singer, scoring crossover form one of the most popu- I’m writin’,” she told The AP
ed by her longtime person- White, who produced the hits with songs like “Don’t It lar duos in country music in 1995. Even into her later
al assistant and designer album and played the gui- Make My Brown Eyes Blue” with hits such as “Louisi- years, Lynn never seemed
Tim Cobb. tar parts. and “Half the Way.” Lynn’s ana Woman, Mississippi to stop writing, scoring a
Her honesty and unique Reba McEntire was among daughter Patsy Lynn Russell Man” and “After the Fire is multi-album deal in 2014
place in country music was the stars who reacted to also was a songwriter and Gone,” which earned them with Legacy Records, a di-
rewarded. She was the first Lynn’s death, posting on- producer of some of her al- a Grammy Award. Their du- vision of Sony Music Enter-
woman ever named en- line about how the singer bums. ets, and her single records, tainment. In 2017, she suf-
tertainer of the year at the reminded her of her late “I was singing when I was were always mainstream fered a stroke that forced
genre’s two major awards mother. “Strong women, born, I think,” she told the country and not crossover her to stop touring, but she
shows, first by the Country who loved their children AP in 2016. “Daddy used or pop-tinged. released her 50th solo stu-
Music Association in 1972 and were fiercely loyal. to come out on the porch And when she first started dio album, “Still Woman
and then by the Acade- Now they’re both in Heav- where I would be singing singing at the Grand Ole Enough” in 2021. q