Loretta Lynn, beloved country singer and the subject of the 1980 film “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” has died. She was 90 years old.
According to a statement to the Associated Press by Lynn’s family, the singer died in her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee on Tuesday. “Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” the statement said.
Lynn was a longtime staple in country music, and the most awarded woman in the field. In her career, she had 10 albums reach No. 1 and 16 singles do the same on the country charts. Lynn won three Grammy Awards (though she was nominated almost 20 times), seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, 13 Academy of Country Music awards, eight CMA awards, and 26 fan-voted Music City News awards.
“To make it in this business, you either have to be first, great or different,” Lynn once said. “And I was the first to ever go into Nashville, singin’ it like the women lived it.”
Lynn’s autobiography “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” was turned into a movie in 1980. Sissy Spacek starred as Lynn, and earned an Oscar for Best Actress for the role. The movie also starred Tommy Lee Jones.
In 1983, Lynn was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and five years later to the Country Music Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, and she was honored in 2010 at the Country Music Awards. In 2013, Lynn was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Obama.
Lynn had her share of medical struggles in recent years though. In 2017, she suffered a stroke that ended 57 years of touring, and then broke her hip in 2018.