“Rest easy ma’am”: Tributes flow for singer Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn, the country singer behind Coal Miner’s Daughter and You Ain’t Woman Enough and a leading feminist in the country music scene, has passed away aged 90.
Her family broke the news in a statement on Twitter 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 read.
Loretta Lynn ♥️ A pioneering daughter that changed music and the world forever for all the daughters that followed. We’ll miss you but your spirit lives on! #thepill #forher pic.twitter.com/9XTPwLkVru
— The Chicks (@thechicks) October 4, 2022
With a career spanning six decades, Lynn built her reputation as a feminist voice in the male-dominated world of country music, tackling issues including the freedom provided by birth control and the inequities of heterosexual relationships.
Her choice of subject matter was controversial for country music in the 1960s and ‘70s, with Lynn telling one interviewer that 14 of her songs had been banned by radio stations.
“I wasn’t the first woman in country music,” she said in a 2007 interview with Esquire magazine.
“I was just the first one to stand up there and say what I thought, what life was about. The rest were afraid to.”
Even so, Lynn became an icon of the genre with more than 50 top 10 hits according to her website.
Lynn went on to become the first woman to win the Country Music Association’s ‘Entertainer of the Year’ award in 1972, as well as seven other CMA awards, 12 Academy of Country Music Awards, and three Grammy Awards as an artist.
She won an additional two Grammys in 2004 for her work on the album Van Lear Rose in collaboration with White Stripes frontman Jack White, where she either wrote or co-wrote every song.
The singer also received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2010.
In 1988, she was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and in 2013 she was presented with a Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-president Barack Obama, who noted that she “opened doors for women not only by winning tremendous achievements, but also by raising issues few dared to discuss”.
Since the news of her passing broke, tributes have begun to flow for Lynn from fans, fellow singers and friends.
Stella Parton penned an emotional tribute to her “sweet friend” and “angel”, accompanied by a photo of the pair together.
“My heart is broken with the news of my sweet friend Loretta Lynn passing. I will remember all the sweet visits and laughs we shared. RIP sweet Angel,” Parton wrote.
“She was an inspiration. R.I.P. Loretta Lynn ❤️,” Carole King tweeted.
“Joyous. Fierce. One of a kind. I loved meeting and working with Loretta Lynn ❤️🕊️🙏,” singer k.d. Lang shared.
“Loretta Lynn gave me this ring of hers many moons ago and I’ve cherished it ever since. Rest in peace. We will all miss you so dearly ❤️,” actress Brooke Shields said.
American band The Oak Ridge Boys tweeted: “Loretta Lynn has gone home… Great Britain lost their Queen … now we have lost ours … Rest easy ma’am. You were loved by all … 😢”.
Ken Burns, the documentarian behind Country Music, the 2019 miniseries that Lynn took part in, wrote: “Loretta Lynn turned life into song, providing a voice to the experiences of American women.
“She will always be celebrated as a central part of the history of country music.”
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