Loretta (Webb) Lynn (1932 - 2022)

Born 14 Apr 1932 in Butcher Hollow, Van Lear, Johnson, Kentucky, United States

Ancestors

Wife of Oliver Vanetta Lynn Jr. — married 10 Jan 1948 in Paintsville, Johnson, Kentucky, United States

Descendants

Died 4 Oct 2022 at age 90 in Hurricane Mills, Humphreys, Tennessee, United States

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Biography

Loretta (Webb) Lynn is Notable.

Loretta Lynn journeyed from the poverty of the Kentucky hills to Nashville superstardom to become an honest-to-goodness American icon.^[1] She was a multiple gold album American country music singer-songwriter whose work spanned more than 50 years. She received numerous awards and other accolades for her groundbreaking role in country music.^[2]

Born as Loretta Webb in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, she was the second of Clara Marie "Clary" Ramey and coal miner Theodore Melvin "Ted" Webb’s eight children. Just as she would later sing in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Loretta’s family eked out a living during the Depression on the “poor man’s dollar” that her father managed to earn “work{ing] all night in the Van Leer coal mine [and] all day long in the field a-hoein’ corn.” As she also noted in that song, “I never thought of leavin’ Butcher Holler.” But that was before she met Oliver Lynn (aka Doolittle or Doo, or “Mooney” for moonshine), a handsome 21-year-old fresh from military service who swept the young Loretta Webb off her feet. The couple married when Loretta was barely 16.^[1]

Doo found work in Custer, Washington, where Loretta joined him in 1951. They had four children by the time Loretta began singing seriously in 1961, and six children altogether. In her spare time, she learned to play the guitar and began singing in the area. With Doolittle's encouragement, she started her own band, "Loretta and the Trailblazers", with her brother, Jay Lee, playing lead guitar. During one televised talent contest in Tacoma, hosted by Buck Owens, Loretta was spotted by Norm Burley who was so impressed that he started Zero Records just to record her.^[1][2]

Early in her career, Loretta was greatly influenced by Kitty Wells, twangy and nasal, rhythmically straight up and down, plainspoken and emotionally understated. “Success,” the 1962 single that became Loretta’s first Top Ten hit, showcased Loretta in a full-throated, string-backed setting that’s more than a little reminiscent of Patsy Cline, who influenced her change from the earlier Wells; styling. Out of these influences, Lynn soon fashioned her distinctive style.^[1]

Over the next few years, Loretta wrote a string of hits unprecedented for their take-no-crap women narrators. Lynn focused on blue-collar women's issues with themes about philandering husbands and persistent mistresses, inspired by issues she faced in her marriage. She pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music by singing about birth control ("The Pill"), repeated childbirth ("One's on the Way"), double standards for men and women ("Rated "X""), and being widowed by the draft during the Vietnam War ("Dear Uncle Sam").^[2] As on most of Lynn’s biggest solo hits, the studio band for the above numbers included members of Nashville’s famed A-Team: guitarist Grady Martin, six-string electric bassist Harold Bradley, bass player Junior Huskey, pianist Floyd Cramer, drummer Buddy Harman, and pedal steel guitarist Hal Rugg.^[1]

Her hard work culminated in 1972 when Lynn won her second Best Female Vocalist award from the Country Music Association—and when she became the first woman to win the CMA’s most prestigious award, Entertainer of the Year.^[1]

It didn’t hurt that sprinkled among her many solo hits was a series of amazing collaborations between Loretta and her dear friend, singer Conway Twitty. Indeed, Loretta also won her first Vocal Duo of the Year award in 1972, with Conway, a title the team held onto through 1976. Lynn received numerous awards in country and American music. She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983, the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1988, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, and she was honored in 2010 at the Country Music Awards. In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama (awarded also to Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Bob Dylan). Lynn joined The Grand Ole Opry September 25, 1962; her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry was on October 15, 1960. Lynn recorded 70 albums, including 54 studio albums, 15 compilation albums, and one tribute album, and sold over 48 million albums worldwide in her career.^[1][2]

Through the 1970s, Loretta scored more and more hits—and became more and more famous beyond her country base. In 1973, she appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine; in 1976, her autobiography (written with journalist George Vescey) became a New York Times bestseller; in 1980, the book was made into a hit film starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones. By the time of her last major hit—”I Lie,” in 1982—Lynn counted 52 Top 10 hits and 16 #1s.^[1]

Loretta Lynn spent the 1990s largely away from the spotlight, caring for her ailing husband Doo and, after he died in 1996, grieving his loss. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} Loretta Lynn.com
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Wikipedia Loretta Lynn's Wikipedia

• Wikidata: Item Q272931, en:Wikipedia

• Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
  Find A Grave: Memorial #244138592 (accessed 5 October 2022)
  Memorial page for Loretta Lynn Famous memorial (14 Apr 1932-4 Oct 2022), citing Lynn Family Estate Cemetery, Hurricane Mills, Humphreys County, Tennessee, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave Burial Details Unknown.

• "Kentucky, Vital Record Indexes, 1911-1999," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKHT-C6XV : 1 July 2015), Loretta Webb, 1932; citing Birth, Johnson, Kentucky, United States, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort.

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K7TN-1RV : accessed 12 September 2017), Loretta Webb in household of Melvin Webb, Magisterial District 2, Johnson, Kentucky, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 58-7, sheet 10B, line 57, family 154, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 1322.

• "Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2DX-J87R : 29 November 2018), Oliver Lynn and Loretta Webb, 10 Jan 1948; citing Marriage, Paintsville, Johnson, Kentucky, United States, various county clerks and county courts, Kentucky; FHL microfilm 1,912,965.

• Lynn still mourns husband's death Lubbock Online
• Lynn's road to stardom started with $17 guitar
• Coal Miner's Daughter, p. 73.
• Thanki, Juli. "20 Most Controversial Songs by Women". Engine 145. Retrieved April 6, 2014.
• "About the Artist: Biography of Loretta Lynn". The Kennedy Center; accessed 2007-02-04.
• http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/jay_lee_webb
• "Loretta Lynn: Married at 15, Not 13; 80-Years-Old, Not 77". Associated Press via WSAZ-TV. May 18, 2012. Archived from the original on May 21, 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
• Notice of death of Betty Sue Lynn, musicrow.com, July 2013; accessed May 4, 2014.
• "Loretta Lynn's eldest daughter dies". Huffington Post. Huffington Post. Retrieved April 15, 2014.
• "Legends: Loretta Lynn Tells All". CBS News. December 27, 2002. Retrieved 2007-02-04. Her autobiography recounts how once, in a drunken rage, he smashed many jars full of vegetables she had painstakingly canned.
• Lynn, Loretta (2002). Still Woman Enough: a Memoir. Hyperion. ISBN 0786866500.
• Loretta Lynn: Van Lear Rose (2004) reviews", Metacritic.com; accessed March 3, 2007.
• Loretta Lynn "Died" in surgery, ContactMusic.com, June 8, 2006; accessed March 30, 2012.