Loretta Lynn died peacefully in her sleep early Tuesday morning at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Lynn was 90. According to Country Insider, over the course of her 60-year career, Lynn amassed 51 Top 10 hits, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Thanks to the Oscar-winning 1980 film Coal Miner’s Daughter starring Sissy Spacek, Lynn’s story and songs were brought to an even wider audience.
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.
She followed up with 2018’s GRAMMY-nominated Wouldn't It Be Great, a combination of newly written songs and fresh interpretations of her catalog.
In 2021, the she released Still Woman Enough, a celebration of women in country music.
Lynn’s music and achievements were repeatedly recognized by all of the major awards bodies. She 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. 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.
