Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter and Queen of Country Music Dies at 9

Loretta Lynn was an American country singer-songwriter known as the Queen of Country Music and the Coal Miner's Daughter. Born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1932, in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, she rose from poverty to become one of the genre's best-loved and most outspoken stars.

Lynn joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1962 and became the first woman in country music to write a No. 1 hit, "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)," in 1966. In 1972 she became the first woman named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. The 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter, based on her life, won an Academy Award for Sissy Spacek, who played her.

Lynn married Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn in 1948 at age 15, and they had six children, including twin daughters Peggy and Patsy. He died in 1996. Her sister is country singer Crystal Gayle. She died in her sleep at her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on October 4, 2022, at age 90, of natural causes. Remembered for songs that told hard truths about women's lives, she changed country music.

Achievements: Joined the Grand Ole Opry (1962), first woman to write a No. 1 country hit (1966), first woman named CMA Entertainer of the Year (1972), the film Coal Miner's Daughter won an Oscar for Sissy Spacek (1980).

Birth: April 14, 1932 - Butcher Hollow, Kentucky.

Profession: Country singer-songwriter.

Interesting Facts: She was named after film star Loretta Young. Several of her songs were banned from radio in her day for their frank subjects.