Loretta Lynn, country music icon, dies at 90
- 2 years ago
Loretta Lynn, the country singer of love and hardship, dies aged 90
The Kentucky-born singer went from poverty and teenage marriage to becoming one of the most celebrated stars of US country
Loretta Lynn, whose tales of heartbreak and poverty are among the most celebrated in the country music canon, has died aged 90.
Lynn died at home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on 4 October, her family confirmed.
Beginning with 1966’s Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on
Your Mind), she topped the US country charts 16 times and was nominated for 18 Grammy awards, winning three. She recorded 60 studio albums in all.
Born Loretta Webb in a one-room rural Kentucky cabin in 1932, Lynn was one of eight siblings and the daughter of a coal miner – a fact that led to her signature song, 1970’s Coal Miner’s Daughter.
She was married at the age of 15 to 21-year-old Oliver Lynn, a month after she had met him. Despite Oliver’s frequent infidelity and struggle with alcoholism, the couple remained together for 48 years, until Oliver died in 1996. They had six children together, three of them before Lynn was 20.
The Kentucky-born singer went from poverty and teenage marriage to becoming one of the most celebrated stars of US country
Loretta Lynn, whose tales of heartbreak and poverty are among the most celebrated in the country music canon, has died aged 90.
Lynn died at home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on 4 October, her family confirmed.
Beginning with 1966’s Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on
Your Mind), she topped the US country charts 16 times and was nominated for 18 Grammy awards, winning three. She recorded 60 studio albums in all.
Born Loretta Webb in a one-room rural Kentucky cabin in 1932, Lynn was one of eight siblings and the daughter of a coal miner – a fact that led to her signature song, 1970’s Coal Miner’s Daughter.
She was married at the age of 15 to 21-year-old Oliver Lynn, a month after she had met him. Despite Oliver’s frequent infidelity and struggle with alcoholism, the couple remained together for 48 years, until Oliver died in 1996. They had six children together, three of them before Lynn was 20.