Country Music legend Loretta Lynn passed away yesterday at age 90.
Here are some interesting facts about the late icon’s remarkable life.
1. She was named after child actress Loretta Young, because her mom was a fan. Young won the Best Actress Oscar in 1948 for “The Farmer’s Daughter”.
2. Loretta was so poor growing up, her mom used newspapers as wallpaper. They lived in a small cabin in the mountains with eight kids, and it got cold. So her mom would glue newspapers to the wall to add a little more insulation.
3. She loved to eat rabbit and squirrel, but not possum. She talked about it in her 2004 cookbook “You’re Cookin’ It Country”. Her dad loved possum, but she didn’t care for it. (Did we mention she grew up poor?)
4. Loretta got married VERY young. Some sources say 15. But she told “Esquire” in 2007 that she was 13 when she married her husband Oliver Lynn. He was about six years older. They stayed married until his death in 1996.
5. She had six kids and became a grandmother at 34. She had twins in 1964. Then two years later, her oldest daughter Betty Sue had Loretta’s first grandkid.
6. A lot of people don’t know her younger sister is Crystal Gayle. Crystal is only 71, about 19 years younger than Loretta.
7. She was good friends with Patsy Cline and claimed she used to see her ghost. She wrote about it in her 2020 book “Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust”. Patsy died tragically in a plane crash in 1963.
8. She was also good friends with Sissy Spacek. They got close after Sissy played her in the 1980 film “Coal Miner’s Daughter”.
9. Several of Loretta’s songs got banned from the radio. The most famous was “The Pill“ in 1975, because it was about contraception. But it still hit #5 on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart, and #70 on the Hot 100.
10. And Keith Urban jumped out of her cake at her 87th birthday concert in 2019. When the show got announced, she joked that’s all she wanted. So he made it happen:
Watch Keith Urban Jump Out of a Cake to Fulfill Loretta Lynn's Birthday Wish
In honor of Loretta Lynn Official's 87th birthday on April 14, a number of artists took part in her All-Star Birthday Celebration Concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on April 1, including Alan Jackson, , Darius Rucker, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Trisha Yearwood and more.But Keith Urban took the cake. As Cam led the crowd in a rendition of "Happy Birthday," a three-tiered cake—which was fake—was wheeled onto stage. As the song concluded, Keith sprang from the cake, fulfilling Loretta's tongue-in-cheek birthday wish.A little backstory: When the concert was announced in January, Lorreta said, “I am so excited to celebrate my 87th birthday with all my friends. This is the first time I’ve ever had a birthday party! My birthday wish has come true. The only other wish I have is that Keith Urban jumps out of my birthday cake!”After Nash Country Daily posted Loretta's wish via Twitter, Keith Urban responded by saying, "Loretta Lynn…your wish is always my command Miss Loretta!!!! – KU."Keith is a man of his word. Watch him spring from Loretta's cake.
Posted by The Country Daily on Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Rest easy Coal Miner’s Daughter from Hot Country 1035.
-Ian
