Loretta Lynn rightfully deserves to be called the queen and innovator of country music.
She is the only female ACM Artists of the Decade.
Loretta, who is now 86, has walked a long path, from the poverty of a mining town to
the top of a superstar career.
She survived several miscarriages and the death of her two children and her husband.
Even though he helped her open her talent to the world, he was nothing like an ideal partner.
Find out the life story of this fantastic woman in our video!
Loretta was born into a very poor, large coal mining family in Kentucky.
She was named after actress Loretta Young.
"My mommy and daddy had 8 kids, so there were 10 of us living in a small cabin in the mountains," says Lynn.
She was only 15 when she fell in love with Oliver Lynn, nicknamed Doolittle.
The teenage girl could not resist the charming and cheerful 20-year-old stud.
They got married within just a month and Doolittle left with his young wife to Washington state.
While needing the most support from her husband during her final trimester,
Loretta found out about Doo's love affair.
Lynn gave birth to her first baby when she was 16
Doo's admiration and enjoyment of having a baby made her forgive his cheating.
Working on a farm and taking care of her children absorbed all her energy, but Oliver's present
- a $17 guitar, inspired her.
Loretta wrote her first song when she was 24.
She had been married for 9 years and already had 4 children.
Lynn and her brother formed a band and performed together in bars and small concerts around the state.
For a beginner country star there was no other way to build a career but to move to the center
of country music- Nashville.
Patsy Cline helped Loretta a lot to settle in
and to get used to the world of show business.
Loretta's unique talent did not go unnoticed.
Her song I'm a Honky Tonk Girl struck like lightning and Lynn was unexpectedly flooded
with record offers from top to toe.
She hit the road for a music tour around the country together with her husband.
As it turned out, it was the best time for their relationship
Loretta Lynn immediately became famous and her songs rocked the top of the music charts.
Lynn's peculiarity isn't her voice only, she tells about women's misfortune in her lyrics,
bringing up things she was afraid to talk about before.
It's not a mystery that her songs were autobiographical, including "Don't come home a-drinking".
The great success of his wife crushed Oliver's self-esteem
The constant love affairs that Lynn was trying to put up with for a long time increased dramatically.
Coming home drunk after romancing another lady, Oliver roughed Lynn up.
Loretta recalls:
Once, trying to protect herself she hit him hard in his face.
The second Loretta saw the blood and teeth falling out, she got scared to death.
She thought: 'I'm dead.
I am dead.
I am completely dead.’
Oliver said nothing and just left the room.
And as usual, she paid for his visit to the doctor.
In early 2000 Loretta published her autobiography, Still Woman Enough, where she described their
relationship in details.
She describes him as an alcoholic man, who beat her, was unfaithful and spent her money.
After her husband's death in 1996, Lynn moved to a smaller house.
Her former dwelling with Mooney is now open to tourists in the summer.
She never felt comfortable there, because Oliver's girlfriends were in the house when
she was on the road Loretta rarely went on stage, preferring a
regular life on a ranch.
In her interviews she says, she'd never wanted to go through the hell with Doo gain.
But on the other hand, she admits, that without Oliver, she wouldn't have become the Loretta
Lynn we all know and love.
What do you think about family violence?
Is it worth staying in the family if a man beats his wife?
Thanks for watching.
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