She was the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” singer of the 90’s – The Hollywood Reporter

Loretta Lynn, the acclaimed singer-songwriter whose rise from a small Kentucky coal-mining community to national country music stardom became a Hollywood legend. She was 90 years old.

In a statement provided to the Associated Press, Lynn’s family said she died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. In May 2017, she had a stroke that ended her touring career.

Lynn’s life story was memorably told by Michael Apted Coal miner’s daughter (1980) based on her 1976 memoir. Sissy Spacek won a Best Actress Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for her role in portraying the singer, and has been a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame since 1988.

Among the survivors is younger sister (and fellow country star) Crystal Gale.

Besides the dramatic details of her life, Lynn, who has recorded number 16 at number one countrywide and won three Grammy Awards, has been among the music’s leading singer-songwriters.

She became one of the brightest stars in the industry in an era when men dominated the country. She has written much of her hit material, and it has been sharply written stuff, made from the point of view of a woman (usually married) who takes no doubt from her man. She did not shy away from the controversial topic.

Loretta Webb was born on April 14, 1932 in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. In her autobiography, she wrote, “I always make Butcher Hollow sound like the most underdeveloped part of the United States—and I think it probably is.”

Melvin Webb’s second oldest child, the second oldest of a coal miner’s child, she grew up in sometimes abject poverty at the heart of the Great Depression. The radio was one of the few distractions she had. 11-year-old Loretta became fascinated by the Grand Ole Opry and her early co-star, Molly O’Day.

At the age of 15, she married Oliver Lynn, better known by his nicknames “Doolittle” and “Money”. A year later, the couple moved from Kentucky to Custer, Washington, a town of a few hundred people near Bellingham. At the age of 18, Lynn gave birth to four children. (Two others will follow.)

With the encouragement of her husband, Lynn began singing in Washington clubs. In 1950, Don Grachy of the small company Zero Records arranged a session for her in Los Angeles. Backed by top-notch guitarists Speedy West and Roy Lanham, she cut her installation “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” inspired in part by Kitty Wells’ 1952 song “It Wasn’t God Who Made the Angels Honky-tonky.”

With tireless promotion by the country novice, the song became a surprise hit, and soon Lynn was touring with the Wellborn Brothers and appearing at the Grand Ole Opry. Signed by major Decca Records in 1961, the title of her first Top 10 hit to the company was a harbinger for the rest of her career: “Success”.

This was followed by a series of country singles that topped the charts, singing in a warm voice but taking a tough stance. Just the names of several of these hits from Telegraph Lynn’s point of view: “You Ain’t Woman Enough” (No. 2, 1966), “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin” (with Lovin’ on Your Mind)” (No. 1, 1966), “What Kind of Girl (Do You Think I Am?)” (No. 5, 1967), “Fist City” (No. 1, 1968) and “Your Squaw Is on the Warpath” (No. 3, 1968).

Other signature tunes by Lynn have taken an autobiographical path; These include 1965’s “Blue Kentucky Girl” (which Emmylou Harris memorably covered) and 1970’s #1 hit single “The Coal Mine’s Daughter.”

In 1971—the year she charted her biggest single, “One’s On the Way”—Lynn began a fruitful collaboration with fellow company colleague Conway Tweety. The pair’s #1 duo “After the Fire Is Gone” was followed by over ten top 10 singles singles.

In 1975, as the national debate over women’s liberation continued to sway, Lane instigated commentary with her song “The Pill.” The tune, which reached number five on the state chart, is, in her words, “about how a man keeps a woman barefoot and pregnant through the years.” She was one of the best examples of the no-nonsense bravery in composing her songs.

Lynn continued to chart records through the 1980s, but her recording career slowed and then stalled.

She returned to the scene at the age of 70 in 2004 through the agency of an unlikely fan and collaborator: Jack White, then the famous Detroit actor in garage villain The White Stripes. They collaborated on the Interscope album Van Leer RoseWhich is designed to reignite her career just as American Records’ Johnny Cash streak of albums has brought her back to center stage.

The album became the biggest of her career, and Lynne White’s duet “Portland Oregon” received serious radio play.