15 Things You Didn't Know About Loretta Lynn
The late country legend led a fascinating life.
By Maria Carter
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Country music lost a legend today. Loretta Lynn—who in her 60-year-plus career had 51 Top 10 hits, sold 45 million albums worldwide, and garnered dozens of awards, including four GRAMMY awards and a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame—"passed peacefully in her sleep early this morning," according to a family statement. She was 90.
Hailing from the coal-mining hills of Kentucky, Loretta was a true rags-to-riches story. She married her husband, the late Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn, at a young age, and together they peddled her music all around the country while also raising their six kids. Eventually (and with the help of friends like Patsy Cline), she became one of the boldest voices in the industry and remained so throughout her lifetime, releasing her last album, Still Woman Enough, in 2021. Here are a few interesting facts to know about her life.
She was named after Loretta Young.
Her mom was a big fan of the American actress, who was known for her starring roles in The Farmer's Daughter (1947) and Come to the Stable (1949).
Her sisters are country musicians too.
Loretta was born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, the second of eight children. Her sisters, Peggy Sue and Crystal Gayle, are also professional country singers.
Her family was so poor, her mother used Sears catalog pages as wallpaper.
"My mommy and daddy had eight kids, so there were 10 of us living in a small cabin in the mountains (pictured)," Loretta said. "The winters were cold, so my mommy glued newspapers and pages from old Sears Roebuck catalogs to the wall to help keep the cold out. We didn't have money for wallpaper, but my mommy made that old house stay warm and beautiful."
She knew her husband for a month before marrying him.
Loretta Webb and Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn famously married when she was between 13 and 16, and he was 21. Loretta gave birth to the first of their six children a year later, and had three more kids by the time she was edging on 20. The were together until Doolittle's death in 1996.
Her first guitar was a gift from her husband.
Doo, as Loretta called him, bought her a $17 Gibson guitar from Sears & Roebuck when she was 18.
She wrote her first song on a fishing trip.
The Lynns were living in Washington state at the time. "One day we went fishing. I don't know why I just sat down and wrote a song. But I remember being shocked that those lyrics just came pourin' out of me," Loretta revealed in her 2012 memoir, Honky Tonk Girl. "I wrote my very first lyric when I wrote 'Whispering Sea.'"
Her father never saw her success.
Her first single, "Honky Tonk Girl," was released a year after her dad died.
She was good friends with Sissy Spacek.
Sissy, who won an Oscar for portraying Loretta in the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter, performed duets with Loretta and spoke highly of her friend in an American Masters documentary about the singer. Sissy also made the occasional appearance on Loretta's Instagram account.
She became a grandmother at age 34.
Loretta's oldest daughter married and had her first child at 18. Loretta's youngest children, twin girls, were 2 years old at the time.
She wrote songs backwards.
At least according to Jack White, who produced her 2004 album Van Lear Rose. "She's got her own style of writing," Jack said in the American Masters documentary on Loretta. "She sort of writes with a double chorus, there isn't one chorus, per se, when you listen to her songs. There are two choruses, she starts with the second one and then comes back the first part of the chorus and then goes back and starts writing the verses and the story to get to it."
Her Tennessee ranch has its own zip code and post office.
Loretta's ranch, Hurricane Mills, features six museums (including one dedicated to dolls), an RV campground, and a concert venue. The property has hosted the annual AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship since 1982.
She wasn't always forthright about her age.
In 2012, the Associated Press compared the country singer's birth certificate with her marriage license and found that she was actually older than she claimed. In her autobiography, she wrote that she was married at 13, but the records revealed she was almost 16.
She was a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.
President Obama awarded Loretta the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013, acknowledging her legacy of "courageously breaking barriers in an industry long dominated by men."
She was a major influence on Reba McEntire.
In 2016, Reba revealed that she warms up before going on stage by singing her favorite Loretta song, "If You're Not Gone Too Long." Upon news of the icon's death in 2022, Reba and many others in the music industry posted tributes in remembrance of Loretta on social media.
Her dresses were inspired by pageant wear.
Her longtime dress designer, Tim Cobb, got his start creating gowns for the Miss America and Miss USA pageants.
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