How Old Was Loretta Lynn When She Passed Away: Loretta Lynn passed away on Tuesday morning at her home in Tennessee. She was born into extreme poverty to a coal miner in Kentucky and soared to the pinnacles of international celebrity. 90 years old.
“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, Oct. 4, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” her family said in a statement.
Daughter Patsy Lynn Russell wrote, “My beautiful mother joined my father today ❤️” with a photo of her parents, while sister Crystal Gayle added, “The world lost a legend. We lost a sister. Love you Loretta❤️🌺”
The country icon turned 90 in April, and singers from all across the world sent greetings her way.
“To us, you’re always timeless and ageless and always will be,” Tim McGraw said at the time.
By the time she was 20, Loretta had given birth to four children after getting married at the age of 15 to Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, a moonshine runner six years her senior. To supplement her income, she began writing songs on a $17 guitar her husband had purchased her and performing in honky tonks.
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In 1960, she signed her first record deal and released her first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl.” A string of Top 10 hits followed: “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” “Fist City.” Many were inspired by her own marital woes.
“I went through a lot and I put up with a lot,” Lynn — who joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1962 — told PEOPLE in 2010. “Every song I wrote came from my heart.”
When Lynn received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2003, President George H.W. Bush referred to her as “a national treasure” and she was the first female artist of the year in the Country Music Association’s history.
In her best-selling memoirs Coal Miner’s Daughter from 1976, Lynn painfully detailed her deprived upbringing in Butcher Hollow. It also served as the inspiration for the 1980 box office success starring Sissy Spacek, who Lynn personally chose for the part and went on to win the Best Actress Oscar.
“Today is a sad day. The world lost a magnificent human being. Loretta Lynn was a great artist, a strong and resilient country music pioneer and a precious friend,” Spacek told PEOPLE in a statement. “I am heartbroken. I send my deepest sympathies to her wonderful family, her friends, and her loyal fans.”
“Doo” and Lynn were wed from 1948 until his passing in 1996. Their six children, including son Jack, who was the oldest, perished in a drowning accident in 1984. Daughter Betty Sue passed away in 2013 as a result of emphysema complications. The most well-known of Lynn’s seven siblings is the singer Crystal Gayle. Along with those surviving, Lynn had a large number of grandkids.
When asked about her legacy, Lynn told PEOPLE in 2010: “I really don’t know that I’ve made a mark. I hope I have. And I hope I’m thought well of, that I never hurt nobody.”
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Was She Hospitalize in Nashville?
After having a stroke at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, Lynn was admitted to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2017. The country singer continued to perform in concert halls and welcome guests to her ranch during her hospitalizations for pneumonia and weariness throughout her life.
That August, even though Lynn was still too ill to attend the preview party for her new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, she instead gave her daughter Patsy Lynn Russell “a piece of me” in the form of the two wedding bands that her late husband had given her.
“It took her so long to get one, I think he felt she deserved two,” Russell said as she fingered the two identical bands, each studded with a row of small diamonds. “She took them off her finger and gave them to me today … It’s kind of like she gets to go through [the exhibit] with me.”
“This is the first time I’ve been out of the house, Alan,” Lynn said after being greeted with a raucous standing ovation by the 800 invited guests. “You’re the only thing that’ve brought me here.”
“She had an accident on New Year’s Day and fractured her hip,” Russell told PEOPLE exclusively about her mother’s condition at the time. “At my mom’s age it’s so dangerous when it comes to the hip, so we’re all just grateful she seems to be OK. She’s up putting weight on it and starting her rehab now.”
“She has a new puppy — we don’t really know if she was chasing after the puppy or what, but she slid and fractured her hip. We blame the puppy!” said Patsy with a laugh. “Though the puppy brings smiles so there’s that.”
Lynn revealed her health situation to PEOPLE in September 2018, assuring them that she would not be defeated by a stroke: “I wouldn’t let it deter me. You just cannot say, “Hey, take me,” while sitting down.”
Later on in the same week, she finally published Wouldn’t It Be Great, an album of original songs as well as a few covers of well-known classics, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which she had put off because of her stroke.
“It’s a very scary thing when you find out you’re havin’ a stroke,” Lynn said at the time. Immediately, I wondered if I could sing. Mommy said I was born singin’. That’s all I’ve ever done. I couldn’t believe that that could be taken away.”
Later, in June 2017, Lynn responded in a video posted to her Facebook page to a tabloid article that implied she was near death. “Hey, it says I’m in a nursing home and that I’m close to passing away. You have to be joking! Both Willie and I are still alive. We’re both reviving, and we’re going to raise hell “She made a reference to fellow performer Willie Nelson, who had previously denied comparable allegations.
Fans followed the real-life narrative of Patsy Cline and Lynn, and how they supported one another to create their marks in the industry, in the 2019 Lifetime film Patsy & Loretta.
Still Woman Enough, the four-time Grammy winner’s 50th studio album, was released in March 2021 and honoured the contributions of women to country music. Tanya Tucker, Margo Price, Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, and other artists might be heard on the album.
Fans and other artists showered her with love no matter what she was through at home. Miranda Lambert, who knew Lynn, told PEOPLE, “She was gorgeous and spunky and had this attitude that made you want to be better.” She was among the most sincere artists out there.
