1 duet “After the Fire Is Gone” was followed by a dozen more top 10 country singles. In 1971 - the year she charted her biggest solo hit, “One’s on the Way” - Lynn began a productive collaboration with labelmate Conway Twitty. Other signature tunes by Lynn took an autobiographical tack these included 1965’s “Blue Kentucky Girl” (memorably covered by Emmylou Harris) and 1970’s No. 1, 1968) and “Your Squaw Is on the Warpath” (No. 1, 1966), “What Kind of a Girl (Do You Think I Am?)” (No. 2, 1966), “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” (No. Just the names of many of these hits telegraph Lynn’s point of view: “You Ain’t Woman Enough” (No. She was signed by the major label Decca Records in 1961, and the title of her first top 10 hit for the company harbingered the rest of her career: “Success.”Ī run of chart-topping country singles followed, sung in a warm voice but taking a tough-minded stance. With tireless promotion by the country neophyte, the song became a surprise hit, and Lynn was soon touring with the Wilburn Brothers and appearing on the Grand Ole Opry. Backed by top-flight guitarists Speedy West and Roy Lanham, she cut her composition “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” inspired in part by Kitty Wells’ 1952 hit “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” In 1950, Don Grashey of tiny Zero Records arranged a session for her in Los Angeles. (Two more would follow.)Įncouraged by her husband, Lynn began singing in Washington clubs. One of the few distractions she had was the radio 11-year-old Loretta became enamored of the Grand Ole Opry and its early female star, Molly O’Day.Īt age 15, she married Oliver Lynn, known by his nicknames “Doolittle” and “Mooney.” A year later, the couple moved from Kentucky to Custer, Washington, a town of a few hundred near Bellingham. The second eldest of coal miner Melvin Webb’s eight children, she grew up in sometimes dire poverty in the heart of the Great Depression. “I’m always making Butcher Hollow sound like it’s the most backward part of the United States - and I think maybe it is,” she wrote in her autobiography. She was born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1932, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. And she did not shrink from controversial subject matter. She wrote much of her hit material, and it was sharply penned, crafted from the point of view of a woman (usually a married one) who would take no guff from her man. She became one of the industry’s brightest luminaries in an era when men dominated country. 1 country singles and won three Grammy Awards, was among music’s groundbreaking female singing stars.
Survivors include younger sister (and fellow country star) Crystal Gayle.īeyond the dramatic particulars of her life, Lynn, who recorded 16 No. Loretta Lynn was a great artist, a strong and resilient country music pioneer and a precious friend. “The world lost a magnificent human being. Barbara Bryne, Actress in Sondheim Musicals on Broadway, Dies at 94
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