Unlike anyone before her, Loretta Lynn generated lyrics that reflected the challenges, concerns, and joys of proud, working-class women. Lynn's greatness has been honored with some of the most prestigious awards that can be given to an American artist. She was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983, and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988. In 2003, she received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors; in 2010, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; in 2013, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2015, the inaugural Billboard Legacy Award for Women in Music. Lynn has won seven Grammys, thirteen ACM Awards, and six CMA Awards. In 1972, she became the first woman to be named CMA Entertainer of the Year.
By examining the Coal Miner's Daughter through her music and her rich collection of personal artifacts, this exhibit provides fresh insights into one of the most significant artists of all time.
Born a coal miner's daughter
The second of eight children born to Ted Webb and Clary Ramey Webb, Loretta Webb arrived April 14, 1932. She grew up in a one-room cabin, in a hollow, five miles from Van Lear, Kentucky. Lynn calls her home "Butcher Holler," while other locals referred to it as Miller's Creek Hollow.
Lynn's father (left) worked in the Consolidated Coal Mines for sixteen years, until black lung disease forced him to quit. Years later, he moved his wife (right) and younger children to Wabash, Indiana. He died in 1959, just before Loretta issued her first single.
"If you don't know you're poor, you don't feel poor," Loretta (pictured here in her teens) has said about her childhood. "But Daddy never knew nothing fine in his whole life."
Against the wishes of her parents, Loretta Webb married Oliver Lynn on January 10, 1948. She was fifteen; he was twenty-one. A war veteran, Oliver had various nicknames, including 'Mooney' (from running moonshine), 'Doolittle' (given to him at age two), and, to his wife, 'Doo.'
One's on the way
In the fall of 1948, Loretta followed her husband to Custer, Washington, where he worked as a farmhand and later as a logger. Two months after moving, Loretta gave birth to her first child, Betty Sue. In quick succession, she had three more children: Jack, in December 1949, Ernest Ray, in May 1951, and Cissy, in April 1952. Loretta often sang to her children at bedtime and while doing chores. Her husband noticed her strong singing voice and wondered if her talent might earn some money for the struggling family. In 1953, Doolittle Lynn bought his wife a Harmony acoustic guitar, and Loretta Lynn began writing songs by studying lyrics from sheet music.
In 1956, Doolittle pressed Loretta to perform publicly. She appeared with local band the Westerneers in Custer, Washington, and, later, with her own band, the Trailblazers, at Bill's Tavern in Blaine, Washington.
Lynn in her first stage costume, 1956.
Loretta won two regional talent contests and went on to perform on the Bar-K Jamboree, a Tacoma, Washington TV show hosted by Buck Owens (pictured here at far right).
In February 1960, Lynn recorded her debut, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," in Los Angeles, with (left to right) Ray Lanham, Speedy West, Harold Hensley, Muddy Berry, and Al Williams backing her up. Zero Records president Don Grashey produced the single.
This American DR-332 was one of the microphones used by Lynn at her first recording session. She cut her first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," and three more original songs at the session.
Lynn mailed handwritten letters to deejays with the 45-rpm single, and she and Doolittle promoted the recording by driving to radio stations in the West and South.
A grand entrance
The success of "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl" led to an invitation to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. Loretta Lynn's first appearance on the show--September 17, 1960--drew such a loud response that she began to appear regularly. Lynn's second country hit, "Success," led to membership in the cast of the Grand Ole Opry on September 25, 1962.
In 1961, country duo the Wilburn Brothers (pictured here on either side of Lynn) signed Lynn to their publishing, management, and concert booking companies and featured her in their road show and on their syndicated TV program. The Lynns moved to Nashville in the fall of that year.
Lynn later struggled with the Wilburns. The duo wanted her to polish her act; her producer Owen Bradley wanted her to maintain her natural down-home appeal. Lynn took the Wilburns to court and was released from her contract.
In 1962, Lynn joined Decca Records, where she began working with Owen Bradley. Bradley initially was reluctant to sign Lynn because the label roster already boasted female stars Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, and Brenda Lee. But Bradley soon realized Lynn offered something different--and special.
For Lynn's first Nashville recording session Bradley hired such top studio musicians as guitarist Grady Martin, bassist Bob Moore, and pianist Floyd Cramer. In the presence of these esteemed recording veterans, Lynn became too nervous to sing. Bradley solved the issue by placing a screen between Lynn and the musicians.
Bradley encouraged Lynn to sing in her strong Kentucky drawl and to continue to use Southern idioms in her lyrics. "He never made me feel like I was a dumb hillbilly just because I said 'ain't' or 'holler,'" Lynn wrote. "Owen said people would always understand me, so long as I was myself."
In June 1961, Lynn sent a get-well wish to Patsy Cline, who was recovering from near-fatal injuries suffered in a head-on collision in Nashville. Cline heard the tribute and invited Lynn to her hospital room where, Lynn said, "We became close friends right away." Pictured here is a 1961 holiday card from Patsy Cline and family to Loretta and Doolittle Lynn, which Loretta later framed.
Along with Patsy Cline, Lynn credits Ernest Tubb with helping her adjust to the challenges of a recording career. Tubb had invited Lynn to perform on his Saturday night Midnite Jamboree program before she signed with Decca, Tubb's longtime recording home.
After Lynn joined Decca, she recorded three duet albums with Tubb between 1964 and 1969. Their biggest hits together were "Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be" (#11, 1964) and "Who's Gonna Take the Garbage Out" (#18, 1969).
A life in song
In 1966, Loretta Lynn's career took a great leap forward when she began recording songs of her own. Her radio airplay and record sales grew, and the honesty in her songwriting created an emotional connection with listeners. "You Ain't Woman Enough," a spirited attack on a woman out to steal the singer's husband, became a successful single, spending two weeks at #2 in 1966. It was only the second of Lynn's original songs released by Decca, and it was a game changer. The same can be said of her next single: "Don't Come Home A'Drinkin' (with Lovin' on Your Mind)." Written about her husband, the song became Lynn's first #1. From then on, Lynn dedicated herself to drawing on life experiences for many of her songs.
Lynn wore this blazer, blouse, and skirt on the cover of her 1967 album, Don't Come Home A'Drinkin' (with Lovin' on Your Mind).
Loretta often worried that her songs caused people to take a narrow view of her husband. She came to his defense, saying, "He'd rather be out setting feeders for his quail, or driving a bulldozer, or playing with his [children] than living it up."
Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty bonded in 1969 on a trip to perform in London at the International Country Music Festival. Doolittle Lynn enjoyed Twitty's music, and company, as much as his wife did, so on the plane ride home Doolittle suggested that Loretta and Conway team up for a duet album.
The duo's first single, "After the Fire Is Gone," shot to #1 on the country chart and made a hit of their first album, We Only Make Believe (1971). They eventually released eleven albums together, with twelve Top Ten singles, including five #1s.
Among Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty's duet albums, four hit #1 on the country chart, including Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man and Feelins'. The duo won a Grammy, five Academy of Country Music awards, and three Country Music Association awards.
As Lynn's success grew, her songwriting became more autobiographical. In 1970, she released "Coal Miner's Daughter," the song with which she is most closely identified.
Lynn also began finding songs by others that flaunted her rural background. "Hey Loretta," a #3 song released in 1973, was written for her by Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Member Shel Silverstein. In 1974, she cut "They Don't Make 'Em Like My Daddy," a #4 country song written by Jerry Chesnut.
The candor expressed by Lynn in her music took a new direction when she started singing about social issues from a woman's point of view. The trend began in 1973, when Lynn reached #1 with "Rated 'X,'" an original song lamenting society's views toward divorced women.
Lynn created more controversy with "The Pill." Although she didn't write the song, its frank discussion of birth control was considered too risque by some disc jockeys and newspaper columnists. Her record label knew the song might cause a stir: Lynn recorded it in 1972, but Decca Records waited until 1975 to release it. Despite the inevitable blowback, "The Pill" became a #5 hit.
"We've Come a Long Way, Baby," a 1978 hit, drew criticism for promoting a phrase associated with feminism and with a cigarette brand marketed to women. But Lynn ignored the critics, saying, "I like being feisty in my songs."
A 1973 article upset Loretta Lynn by asserting that she could neither read nor write. The allegation motivated her to prove her literacy by writing an autobiography. Released in 1976, Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter became a best seller and led to a movie about her life.
As actress Sissy Spacek watched a talk show one night, she heard Loretta Lynn announce that Spacek would play Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter. Spacek was flabbergasted: She had never heard about the film.
But Lynn's pronouncement came true. The singer had mentioned Spacek to the film's producers as a good candidate for the role, and in short order, the actress read the script, accepted the role, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1980.
"I believe me and Sissy were twins in a past life," Lynn has said.
Nearly every woman in country music over the last four decades cites Loretta Lynn as a primary influence. But Lynn's impact reaches beyond gender and genre. Alan Jackson says her songwriting set a standard he aspires to reach, and Garth Brooks calls her "the queen of queens."
Rocker Jack White has said Loretta Lynn is America's greatest songwriter, period. Lynn and White would not appear to have much in common, but White has proven--in words, on recordings, and in performance--that he looks at Lynn as a hero and an influence. White first demonstrated his admiration for Lynn when his band, the White Stripes, released their roughed-up take on Lynn's "Rated 'X'," in 2000. White met Lynn in New York backstage prior to one of her concerts. She wanted to record a new album, she told him. He asked if he might produce it. "Why not?" Lynn said.
The 2004 release, Van Lear Rose featured White on guitar. He sang with Lynn on the single "Portland, Oregon." The album and their duet won Grammys. "I didn't know if it was going to be country, but it is," Lynn said. "It's as country as I am."
After forty original albums in forty-one years, Lynn took a twelve-year break from recording before releasing Full Circle on Sony Legacy in 2016. Produced by daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and John Carter Cash, Full Circle was a return to traditional country music for Lynn. Later the same year, she released the album White Christmas Blue.
Health issues led Lynn to cease touring in 2017, but in 2018, she released Wouldn’t It Be Great, her forty-third album. On April 14, 2020, the Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient celebrated her eighty-eighth birthday.