Loretta Lynn, who set the bar for female country musicians with her songs of tenacity and independence, has away at the age of 90. She was referred to as the “Queen of Country,” and many of her songs, especially the autobiographical Coal Miner’s Daughter, were informed by personal experience.
Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’, Honky Tonk Girl, and the feminist song The Pill were among the other hits.
According to Lynn’s relatives, she passed away on Tuesday at her Tennessee home.
The family released a statement saying, “Our lovely mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills.”
They requested privacy while they mourned and indicated that a memorial service would be planned later.
Modest Beginnings
In a one-room log cabin in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, in 1932, the vocalist was given the name Loretta Webb. She was the second child out of eight.
Her father made a “poor man’s dollar” during the Depression by working all night in the coal mines and all day in the fields “a-hoin’ corn,” just as she would later sing in Coal Miner’s Daughter.
She grew up listening to Carter Family tunes since the family produced its entertainment. Her mother played the guitar and her father played the banjo.
She stated to the Associated Press in 2016 that she had started singing before she was even born. I used to sing while rocking the baby to sleep on the porch as Daddy used to come out.
“He would tell Loretta to stop talking so much. You can be heard throughout this yell by everyone. “Daddy, what difference does it make?” I responded. All of them are my cousins.
Youth Marriage
At the age of 15, she went to a “pie social,” where men competed to win local girls’ baked pies and a date with the baker.
Oliver Lynn, a 21-year-old soldier, won Loretta’s pie after she unintentionally prepared it with salt rather than sugar. Oliver swept Loretta off her feet. They got hitched a month later and moved to Custer, Washington, where they reared their four kids.
She created a band named Loretta and the Trailblazers with the help of a $17 (£15) Sears guitar that her husband, whom she referred to as “Doo” or “Doolittle,” gave her to encourage her to pursue a career as a singer. The band also included her brother Jay Lee Webb.
She obtained a contract with Zero Records by 1960, and I’m a Honky Tonk Girl, her first record, was made available.
The woman Lynn met in Washington, whose husband had left her for another woman, served as the inspiration for the song. According to Lynn, the lyrics to the song came to her in a 10-minute rush of inspiration as she leaned against an old toilet in her home.
She and her husband actively pushed the song, visiting radio stations around the nation to nag DJs into playing it and distributing hundreds of free CDs.
Recognizing Reproductive Autonomy
But Lynn didn’t only write songs about relationships. The lyrics to The Pill, a forthright and humorous celebration of reproductive choice, read: “Don’t misunderstand/ I know he’s fighting for our nation / I really love my country/ But I also adore my guy.” were inspired by the women left at home during the Vietnam War.
The diva crooned, “This old pregnant dress I have is going in the trash/The outfits I’ll be wearing from now on won’t take up so much fabric.” I’m making up for all the years I went without the pill by wearing miniskirts, hot pants, and a few small fancy frills.
She wasn’t given writing credit at first, but it was later discovered that she had contributed to the piece’s creation. The mother of six remarked, in an interview with NPR in 2010, that the songs related to her personal experiences.
“I would have used the pill if I had it,” she admitted. Because birth control pills weren’t available when I was pregnant with all of my children. Or, if we did, I did not know of them.
Because of the subject, her record company put the single on hold for a while. Many country radio stations refused to play it when it was ultimately released in 1975, preventing it from reaching the top spot. Nevertheless, it made the top five and became Lynn’s biggest crossover pop hit.
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