Loretta Lynn passes away at 90

Over the course of her 60-year career, the native of Butcher Hollow, Ky. amassed 51 Top 10 hits, won GRAMMY awards and induction nto the Country Music Hall of Fame, and broke down barriers for women everywhere. Lynn's hits included "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)", "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "One's on the Way," "Fist City" and "Coal Miner's Daughter."

She sang about such topics as 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"). Some of her songs were banned by country radio.

"Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home at her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills," the family said in a statement.

Lynn's rags to riches story was the subject of the Oscar-winning 1980 film "Coal Miner's Daughter," starring Sissy Spacek. The movie was based on Lynn's 1986 autobiography of the same name. In recent years, she enjoyed another resurgence as Jack White spearheading the 2004 album "Van Lear Rose."

Lynn was born Loretta Webb in Butcher Hollow, Ky. on April 14, 1932. She is the eldest daughter and second child born to Clara Marie "Clary" and Melvin Theodore "Ted" Webb. Ted was a coal miner and subsistence farmer. Singer Crystal Gayle is her lone remaining sibling.

On Jan. 10, 1948, Webb, 15, married Oliver Vanetta "Doolittle" Lynn, better known as "Doolittle" or "Mooney" after meeting one month earlier. The Lynns left Kentucky and moved to the logging community of Custer, Wash., when Loretta was seven months pregnant with the first of their six children. The marriage's ups and down inspired Lynn's songwriting.

In 1953, Doolittle bought her a $17 Harmony guitar. With Doolittle's encouragement, she started her own band, Loretta and the Trailblazers, with her brother Jay Lee playing lead guitar. She cut her first record, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl", in February 1960.

Lynn became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960s. Lynn began cutting demo records for the Wilburn Brothers Publishing Co. Through the Wilburns, she secured a contract with Decca Records.

Lynn released her first Decca single, "Success", in 1962, reaching number six. Lynn's songs charted regularly with songs including "Before I'm Over You", which peaked at four followed by "Wine, Women and Song" climbing to third.

In late 1964, she recorded a duet album with Ernest Tubb. Their lead single, "Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be", peaked within the Top 15. The pair recorded two more albums, "Singin' Again" (1967) and "If We Put Our Heads Together" (1969). In 1965, her solo career continued with three major hits, "Happy Birthday," "Blue Kentucky Girl" and "The Home You're Tearing Down". Lynn's label put out two albums that year, "Songs from My Heart" and "Blue Kentucky Girl."

In 1967, Lynn reached the top with "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)", which became one of the first albums by a female country artist to reach sales of 500,000 copies.

Lynn notched 16 chart toppers between 1966 and 1978, and she and Conway Twitty were CMA's Vocal Duo of the Year 1972-75 with songs including "Lead Me On," "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" and "Feelins."

In 1971, Lynn began a professional partnership with Conway Twitty. As a duo, Lynn and Twitty had five consecutive number one hits between 1971 and 1975, including "After the Fire Is Gone" (1971), which won them a Grammy award, "Lead Me On" (1971), "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (1973), "As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone" (1974) and "Feelins'" (1974). For four straight years from 1972–1975, Lynn and Twitty were named the "Vocal Duo of the Year" by the Country Music Association. The Academy of Country Music named them the "Best Vocal Duet" in 1971, 1974, 1975 and 1976. They had seven other Top 10 hits between 1976 and 1981.

Lynn's last Top 10 record as a soloist was 1982's "I Lie", but her releases continued to chart until the end of the decade. Her last top 20 hit was "Heart Don't Do This to Me" (1985), which reached number 19.

Lynn's 1988 album W"ho Was That Stranger" was her final solo disc for MCA, splitting with the label in 1989.

Lynn resurfaced in 1993 with a hit CD, the trio album "Honky Tonk Angels," with Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette. The CD, which would sell 800,000 copies, reached six on the Billboard Country charts and 42 on the Billboard Pop charts and charted a single with "Silver Threads and Golden Needles."

Throughout her 80s, Loretta continued to write new songs and, in 2016, returned to the charts with the GRAMMY-nominated "Full Circle," the first in a series of critically acclaimed albums produced by her daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell, and John Carter Cash at Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, Tenn. She followed up with the seasonal classic "White Christmas Blue" (2016) and 2018's GRAMMY-nominated "Wouldn't It Be Great," a combination of newly written songs and fresh interpretations of her catalog.

In 2021, Lynn released "Still Woman Enough," a celebration of women in country music. Her 50th studio album (not including her 10 studio duet collaborations with Conway Twitty) featured a title track co-written with Patsy Lynn Russell and "Coal Miner's Daughter Recitation," commemorating the 50th anniversary of the release of Lynn's signature song (Oct. 5, 1970) and album (Jan. 4, 1971).

Lynn joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1962, won four GRAMMY awards, seven American Music Awards and eight Country Music Association awards. She was the first woman to win the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards for Entertainer of the Year. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008 and was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. She sold over 45 million albums worldwide.

Lynn was pre-deceased by her husband of 48 years Oliver Vanetta "Doolittle" Lynn, her daughter Betty Sue Lynn and son Jack Benny Lynn. She is survived by her daughters Patsy Lynn Russell, Peggy Lynn, Clara (Cissie) Marie Lynn and her son Ernest Ray Lynn.

In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to the Loretta Lynn Foundation. Information about a memorial service/celebration of life will be made available at a later date.