Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn (born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1934) is an American country music singer-songwriter; she was one of the leading country vocalists and songwriters during the 1960s and 1970s and is revered as a country icon.
Lynn ruled the charts during the '60s and '70s, racking up over 70 hits as a solo artist and a duet partner.
With an impoverished upbringing, a devoted yet troubled marriage, chronic illness and exhaustion due to her hectic pace, and several tragedies through the years, Lynn's own life often provided the grist for her popular tunes. Her best-selling 1976 autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, was made into a hit Oscar-winning film starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones.
Although she was out of the loop for a few years while taking care of her
husband, who died in 1996, Lynn returned to touring in 1998. In 2000, she
released her first album since 1988 to contain original solo material.
Loretta Lynn has acquired sixteen Number 1 country hits over the course of her
career, as both a solo and duet artist.
Childhood & early adulthood
Born to Melvin "Ted" Webb (1906–1959) and Clara Marie (Ramey) Webb (1912–1982) and named in honor of Loretta Young, Loretta Webb was the second of eight children; her youngest sister is country singer Crystal Gayle. She is also, on her mother's side, distantly related to country singer Patty Loveless. Lynn grew up in Butcher Hollow, a section of Van Lear, a mining community near Paintsville, Johnson County, Kentucky. Her mother, Clara, was of Scots-Irish and Cherokee ancestry. Her father, Ted, was a coal miner, storekeeper, and farmer. Growing up with such humble roots had a huge effect on Lynn's life and heavily influenced her music as an adult. Her autobiography describes how, during her childhood, the community had no motor vehicles, paved roads, or flush toilets.
She was married to Oliver Vanetta Lynn, commonly known as "Doolittle," "Doo," or "Mooney" (for running moonshine), on January 10, 1948, at 13 years of age. In an effort to break free of the coal mining industry, Lynn moved to the logging community Custer, Washington, with her husband, at the age of 14. The Lynns had four children by the time Loretta was 17, and subsequently had twin girls, one of whom was named after Patsy Cline. She eventually became the grandmother of 21 grandchildren.
Lynn always had a passion for music; before getting married, she regularly sang at churches and in local concerts. After she married, she stopped singing in public, wishing rather to focus on her family life. Instead, she passed her love of music on to her children, often singing to them around the house. When Loretta was 18, Doolittle bought her a guitar, which she taught herself to play.
Even though they were married for nearly 50 years and had six children together, the Lynn's marriage was reportedly rocky up to Doolittle's death in 1996. In her 2002 autobiography, Still Woman Enough, and in an interview with CBS News the same year, Lynn recounts how her husband cheated on her regularly and once left her while she was giving birth. Lynn and her husband also fought frequently, but, she said, "he never hit me one time that I didn’t hit him back twice."
Career discovery
Lynn began singing in local clubs and later with a band, The Trailblazers, which included her brother Jay Lee Webb. Lynn appeared in a televised Tacoma, Washington talent contest, hosted by Buck Owens, which was seen by Norm Burley, one of the founders of Zero Records.
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