It is a very sad day indeed for all us true country music fans. When I heard the news this morning, I said out load, “I need to call Dad and tell him that Loretta passed away.” That second, I realized my Dad passed away this pass January, but now I know he was waiting to greet her in Heaven. I cried! Thanks to my dad I grew up listening to Loretta Lynn. My dad and I had the opportunity to meet her in the early 80s at a concert in Long Beach. I was able to get back to where their buses were parked and got to talk with her and Conway Twitty. We met her again a few years later in Nashville and again at her museum/ranch in Hurricane Mills, TN. She will be missed by all her fans and prayers to her Sister, her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. Judy Shields, The Hollywood Times
Watch this beautiful video of Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson “Lay Me Down.”
From USA Today:
Lynn’s family said she died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.
“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning (Oct. 4) in her sleep at home at her beloved ranch,” her family said in a statement provided to USA TODAY.
From Wikipedia:
American singer-songwriter. In a career which spanned six decades in country music, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had hits such as “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)“, “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)“, “One’s on the Way“, “Fist City“, and “Coal Miner’s Daughter“. In 1980, the film Coal Miner’s Daughter was made based on her life.
Lynn received many awards and other accolades for her groundbreaking role in country music, including awards from both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music as a duet partner and an individual artist. She was nominated 18 times for a Grammy Award, and won 3 times.[1] As of 2022, Lynn was the most awarded female country recording artist, and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade (1970s). Lynn scored 24 No. 1 hit singles and 11 number one albums. She ended 57 years of touring on the road after she suffered a stroke in 2017 and then broke her hip in 2018.
In 1967, Lynn reached No. 1 with “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)“,[20] which became one of the first albums by a female country artist to reach sales of 500,000 copies.
Lynn’s next album, Fist City, was released in 1968. The title track became Lynn’s second No. 1 hit, as a single earlier that year, and the other single from the album, “What Kind of a Girl (Do You Think I Am)“, peaked within the top 10. In 1968, her next studio album, Your Squaw Is on the Warpath, spawned two Top 5 Country hits, including the title track and “You’ve Just Stepped In (From Stepping Out on Me)“. In 1969, her next single, “Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)“, was Lynn’s third chart-topper, followed by a subsequent Top 10, “To Make a Man (Feel Like a Man)“. Her song “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)“, was an instant hit and became one of Lynn’s all-time most popular. Her career continued to be successful into the 1970s, especially following the success of her autobiographical hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter“, which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Chart in 1970. The song became her first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 83. She had a series of singles that charted low on the Hot 100 between 1970 and 1975. The song “Coal Miner’s Daughter” later served as the impetus for the bestselling autobiography (1976) and the Oscar-winning biopic, both of which share the song’s title.[21]
In 1973, “Rated “X”” peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Country Chart and was considered one of Lynn’s most controversial hits. The following year, her next single, “Love Is the Foundation“, also became a No. 1 country hit from her album of the same name. The second and last single from that album, “Hey Loretta“, became a Top 5 hit. Lynn continued to reach the Top 10 until the end of the decade, including 1975’s “The Pill“, one of the first songs to discuss birth control. Many of Lynn’s songs were autobiographical, and as a songwriter, Lynn felt no topic was off limits, as long as it was relatable to women.[22] In 1976, she released her autobiography, Coal Miner’s Daughter, with the help of writer George Vecsey. It became a No. 1 bestseller, making Lynn the first country music artist to make The New York Times Best Seller list.
On March 5, 1980, the film Coal Miner’s Daughter debuted in Nashville and soon became the No. 1 box office hit in the United States. The film starred Sissy Spacek as Loretta and Tommy Lee Jones as her husband, Doolittle “Mooney” Lynn. The film received seven Academy Award nominations, winning the Best Actress Oscar for Spacek, a gold album for the soundtrack album, a Grammy nomination for Spacek, Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards, and several Golden Globe awards. The 1980s featured more hits, including “Pregnant Again“, “Naked in the Rain“, and “Somebody Led Me Away“.[24] Lynn’s last Top 10 record as a soloist was 1982’s “I Lie“, but her releases continued to chart until the end of the decade.[18]
One of her last solo releases was “Heart Don’t Do This to Me” (1985), which reached No. 19, her last Top 20 hit. Her 1985 album Just a Woman spawned a Top 40 hit. In 1987, Lynn lent her voice to a song on k.d. lang‘s album Shadowland with country stars Kitty Wells and Brenda Lee, “Honky Tonk Angels Medley”. The album was certified gold and was Grammy nominated for the four women. Lynn’s 1988 album Who Was That Stranger would be her last solo album for MCA, which she parted ways with in 1989.[27] She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988.[28]
On March 19, 2021, Lynn released her 50th studio album Still Woman Enough, the fourth album of her deal with Legacy (and to come from the cash cabin recording sessions). It features Carrie Underwood and Reba McEntire on the title track alongside original tracks and duets with Tanya Tucker and Margo Price on re-recordings of “You Ain’t Woman Enough” and “One’s on the Way” respectively.[41] (Wikipedia)
She was the first woman ever named entertainer of the year at the genre’s two major awards shows, first by the Country Music Association in 1972 and then by the Academy of Country Music three years later.
When she first started singing at the Grand Ole Opry, country star Patsy Cline took Lynn under her wing and mentored her during her early career.
The Academy of Country Music chose her as the artist of the decade for the 1970s, and she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988. She won four Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, was honored at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
She and her husband were married nearly 50 years before he died in 1996. They had six children: Betty, Jack, Ernest and Clara, and then twins Patsy and Peggy. She had 17 grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.