Country music icon Loretta Lynn has died. The Kentucky native was 90 years old when she passed away peacefully in her sleep, at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.
“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the family said in a statement.
Lynn was born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky in 1932, the second oldest daughter to her father, Theodore Webb, a coal miner, and mother, Clara Marie. When she was 15 years old, Lynn married Oliver “Doolittle ”Lynn, to whom she remained married until he passed away in 1996.
Lynn didn’t have much growing up, but she learned to be grateful for what she had, a mindset that served her well in adulthood as well.
“My mommy and daddy had eight kids, so there were 10 of us living in a small cabin in the mountains,” Lynn told Country Living. “The winters were cold, so my mommy glued newspapers and pages from old Sears Roebuck catalogs to the wall to help keep the cold out. We didn’t have money for wallpaper, but my mommy made that old house stay warm and beautiful.”
Lynn already had four children when her iconic music career began. She famously made her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1960, becoming a member in 1962. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988.
Lynn released more than 80 singles in a career that spanned more than 60 years. She became known for her bravery in subject topics, which sometimes got her banned from radio, for songs like “Rated ‘X,'” “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind), and “The Pill.”
“I didn’t understand that, because everybody was taking the pill,” Lynn later told Songfacts. “I didn’t have the money to take it when they put it out, but I couldn’t understand why they were raising such a fuss over taking the pill.”
In August, Lynn was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame, in a class that also included Gloria Estefan, the Indigo Girls, Marilyn Bergman and more.
“Thank y’all so much for this award,” Lynn said at the time. “I’m still surprised and humbled by every award because it’s all of you who have made it all possible. I’ve always loved songwriting even more than singing. I write what I live and nothing has helped me through life more.”
Lynn had six children and became a grandmother when she was just 34 years old. She is survived by four of her children, along 17 grandchildren, four step-grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. She passed away at her Tennessee ranch. Funeral services have yet to be announced. Everything Nash extends our deepest condolences to her family.