Loretta Lynn
b. Loretta Webb, 14 April 1935, Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, USA. Lynn is a coal miner's daughter, being the second of the eight children of Ted and Clara Webb. She is one-quarter Cherokee and her name came from her mother's fondness for film star, Loretta Young. She was raised in a small shack during the Depression and was attracted to country music as an 11-year-old, when the family acquired a radio and she heard the singing of Molly O'Day. Her autobiography tells of her makeshift wardrobe and how, at the age of 13, she married a serviceman, Oliver Vanetta Lynn, known to his friends as Doolittle or Mooney, which was short for Moonshine. He took her to Custer, Washington, and she had four children and several miscarriages by the time she was 18. They had six children and Lynn was a grandmother at the age of 29. 'Mooney', recognizing her talent, encouraged her to sing in local clubs and her band, the Trailblazers, included her brother, Jay Lee Webb, on guitar. Her talent was recognized by Don Grashey of Zero Records, who took her to Los Angeles in February 1960 where she recorded four of her own songs. Zero had no money for promotion so she and Mooney promoted I'm A Honky Tonk Girl themselves, the song taking its style from Kitty Wells's It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels. Mooney said that ‘they drove 80,000 miles to sell 50,000 copies’ but it reached number 14 in the US country charts and enabled her to appear regularly on 'Grand Ole Opry'. Many female singers were jealous of her success, but Patsy Cline sprang to her defence and they became close friends. (Lynn released a tribute album to her in 1977.) 
When they moved to Nashville, she became a regular on a weekly television show with the Wilburn Brothers, who also managed her. Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline were two of her major influences and she was pleased to be assigned to their producer, Owen Bradley, by USA Decca Records. Success, her second country hit, peaked at number 6 in 1962, and she had further hits with Before I'm Over You and Blue Kentucky Girl. She then developed a hard-hitting persona as the wife who stood no nonsense from her rivals (You Ain't Woman Enough, Fist City) or her husband (her first country number 1 Don't Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind) from 1966, Your Squaw Is On The Warpath). Her best-known record, the autobiographical Coal Miner's Daughter, was a US country number 1 in 1970. Shel Silverstein, ironically a Playboy cartoonist, wrote One's On The Way in which she was harassed by her children and an insensitive husband. She answered Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man in 1975 with the double standards of The Pill, which was banned by several USA radio stations. By way of contrast, she subsequently had a country hit with a song called Pregnant Again. 
Although her first duets were with Ernest Tubb, she formed a regular team with Conway Twitty and the combination of the two distinctive voices worked well, especially in After The Fire Is Gone, As Soon As I Hang Up The Phone, The Letter and the amusingly-titled You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly. When she fell out with the Wilburn Brothers, she formed United Talent Inc. with Twitty. As the brothers still owned her publishing, she was reluctant to record her own material, although subsequently she was elected to the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame. In 1972, Lynn was the first woman to become the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year and she also shared the Vocal Duo of the Year award with Twitty. In 1973, she made the cover of Newsweek and was the first woman in country music to become a millionaire. However, she met with little UK success and some of her UK releases sold less than 200 copies. Her best-selling autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, showed how the human spirit could combat poverty and sickness, but also illustrated that the problems of endless touring could be as traumatic. Lynn's musicians call her Mom and share their problems with her. Sissy Spacek won an Oscar for her portrayal of Lynn, which included reproducing her singing, in the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter, and the film also featured Tommy Lee Jones as her husband and Levon Helm of the Band as her father. Her country music success includes 16 number 1 singles, 60 other hits, 15 number 1 albums and numerous awards, but she has never sought pop success. She owns a huge ranch, 70 miles outside of Nashville, which has the whole town of Hurricane Mills in its grounds. Another part of the property, the Loretta Lynn Dude Ranch, is a tourist attraction with camping facilities. Despite her prolific output in the '60s and '70s, she has not recorded much recently but she is considering an album of traditional country music with her sisters, Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue Wright. To quote Roy Acuff, ‘A song delivered from Loretta is from the deepest part of her heart.’