Loretta Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner's daughter whose frank songs about life and love as a woman in Appalachia pulled her out of poverty and made her a pillar of country music, has died. She was 90.
Lynn already had four children before launching her career in the early 1960s, and her songs reflected her pride in her rural Kentucky background. The coal miner's daughter grew up in Johnson County in eastern Kentucky. While she did move away at age 13, the Commonwealth was always a part of her. Her honesty and unique place in country music was rewarded. She was the first woman ever named entertainer of the year at the genre's two major awards shows, first by the Country Music Association in 1972 and then by the Academy of Country Music three years later.
Her career was remarkable not just for its success, but its longevity. She toured non-stop for 50 years, hitting the top of the country charts in six different decades. "I was singing when I was born, I think," she told the AP in 2016. "Daddy used to come out on the porch where I would be singing and rocking the babies to sleep. He'd say, 'Loretta, shut that big mouth. People all over this holler can hear you.' And I said, 'Daddy, what difference does it make? They are all my cousins.'"
The Academy of Country Music chose her as the artist of the decade for the 1970s, and she was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988.
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