Country music icon Loretta Lynn dead at 90
Los Angeles, Oct 4 (EFE).- Loretta Lynn, a legendary figure in country music whose career spanned nearly six decades, died Tuesday at her home in western Tennessee, her family said in a statement. She was 90.
“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home at her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the statement read.
Known for her intimate lyrics about life, poverty and the struggles of women, Lynn was a prolific singer-songwriter who released her debut album – “Loretta Lynn Sings” – in 1963 and continued to tour until suffering a stroke in 2017.
A native of the small town of Butcher Hollow in eastern Kentucky, Lynn was particularly adept at portraying through her songs the life of poor communities in that region.
One of her most famous tracks, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” describes how her father worked tirelessly in the coal mines and corn fields to provide for his eight children, while her mother scrubbed clothes until her fingers bled.
That song became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Country Chart in 1970, and it later served as impetus for a 1976 autobiography and subsequent 1980 biopic that both carried that same title.
Sissy Spacek won a best-actress Oscar for her portrayal of Lynn in the movie.
Infidelity, alcoholism and childbearing were some of the themes of Lynn’s hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, including “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” (1966), “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” (1967), “Fist City” (1968) and “One’s On the Way” (1971).
Lynn has the distinction of being the first woman to win country music’s two most prestigious honors: the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award in 1972 and the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year award in 1976.
She also remains the only woman to be named an ACM Artist of the Decade (1970s).
Lynn recorded 50 studio albums and 36 compilation albums over her six-decade career and won three Grammy Awards from 18 nominations.
She won two of those Grammys well after her career peak for her 2004 album “Van Lear Rose,” a collaboration with The White Stripes lead singer and guitarist Jack White.
Lynn continued to write songs into her 80s and in 2014 signed a contract to produce several albums under a deal with Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings label.
But just three years later a stroke forced her to cancel all of her scheduled tour dates, and she spent her final years out of the public eye.
Lynn was married for almost 50 years to Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, a country music talent manager who died in 1996. The couple had six children together. EFE
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