Country singer Loretta Lynn has died aged 90

Country singer Loretta Lynn has died at the age of 90.

The star, who was famous for hits such as ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough’, ‘The Pill’, ‘Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)’ and ‘Honky Tonk Girl’, passed away this morning (October 4), according to a statement from her family.

“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home at her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” they wrote.

Advertisement

Over the years she recorded 60 albums, with her most recent being last year’s ‘Still Woman Enough’, and topped the US country charts 16 times. She also sold more than 45million records worldwide.

She was nominated for 18 Grammy awards, of which she won three, including a lifetime achievement prize in 2010 and her most recent win in 2019.

In 2004, Lynn teamed up with Jack White who produced her album ‘Van Lear Rose’, which went on to become her best-performing album in the US charts at the time, before she topped it with her highest-charting album ever, 2016’s ‘Full Circle’.

In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama.

Born Loretta Webb in a one-room rural Kentucky cabin in 1932, the star was one of eight siblings and the daughter of a coal miner which led to her signature song, 1970’s ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’.

Advertisement

Lynn married her husband Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn when she was 15, and they were together until his death in 1996. It was he who encouraged her to sing professionally and helped promote her early career.

They had six children together; the eldest, Betty Sue and Jack, died in 2013 and 1984 respectively.

Lynn is survived by her other four children, Ernie, Cissie, and twins Peggy and Patsy.

Reviewing her most recent album, NME awarded it four stars and said that Lynn continues “to explore the themes she pioneered in the 1960s – those of women’s innate strength and capabilities.”