Look up lynn in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Lynn commonly refers to:

• Lynn (name), a given name
• Lynn (surname), a surname

Lynn may also refer to

Places[link]

United States

• Lynn, Alabama
• Lynn, Arkansas
• Lynn, California
• Lynn, Indiana
• Lynn, Massachusetts
  • Lynn (MBTA station)
• Lynn, Pennsylvania (disambiguation)
• East Lynn, West Virginia
• Lynn, Wisconsin, a town
  • Lynn (community), Wisconsin, an unincorporated community
• Lynn Canal, inlet in Alaska
• Lynn County, Texas

Canada

• Lynn Lake, Manitoba
• Lynn, Nova Scotia
• Lynn River (Ontario)
• Lynn Valley, neighborhood of North Vancouver, British Columbia

United Kingdom

• Lynn in Staffordshire
• Lynn in Shropshire
• King's Lynn, Norfolk, England
  • South Lynn, the Southern area of King's Lynn
  • West Lynn, Norfolk, the Western area of King's Lynn

New Zealand

• Grey Lynn, New Zealand
• New Lynn, New Zealand

Other uses[link]

• Lynn News, a local newspaper for King's Lynn, Norfolk, England

See also[link]

• Lyn
• Lynne
• All pages beginning with "Lynn"
• All pages with titles containing "Lynn"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn in concert in 2005
Background information
Birth name	Loretta Webb
Also known as	The Coal Miner's Daughter
Born	( 1932-04-14) April 14, 1932 (age 80) Butcher Holler, Kentucky
Genres	Country, honky tonk, gospel
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Actress author
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1960-present
Labels	Zero (1960) Decca/MCA (1961–1989) Columbia (1993) Audium (2000) Interscope (2004)
Associated acts	Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells, Wilburn Brothers, Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Jack White, Crystal Gayle, Peggy Sue
Website	www.lorettalynn.com

Loretta Lynn (born Loretta Webb April 14, 1932),^[1] is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, near Paintsville, Kentucky in Johnson County to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 15 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Vanetta Lynn, Jr. (1926–1996), nicknamed "Doo". Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he had affairs and she was headstrong. Their experiences together became inspiration for her music.

On her 21st birthday, Lynn's husband bought her a $17.00 Harmony guitar. She taught herself to play and when she was 24, on her wedding anniversary, Doo encouraged her to become a singer. She learned the guitar better, started singing at the Delta Grange Hall in Washington State with the Pen Brothers' band, The Westerners, then eventually cut her first record in February, 1960. She became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960s, and in 1967 charted her first of 16 number-one hits (out of 70 charted songs as a solo artist and a duet partner^[2]) that include "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)", "You Ain't Woman Enough", "Fist City", and "Coal Miner's Daughter". She focused on blue collar women's issues with themes of philandering husbands and persistent mistresses, and pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music by singing about birth control ("The Pill"), repeated childbirth ("One's on the Way"), double standards for men and women ("Rated "X""), and being widowed by the draft during the Vietnam War ("Dear Uncle Sam"). Country music radio stations often refused to play her songs. Nonetheless, she became known as "The First Lady of Country Music" and continues to be one of the most successful vocalists of all time.

Her best-selling 1976 autobiography was made into an Academy Award winning film, Coal Miner's Daughter, starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones in 1980. Her most recent album, Van Lear Rose, was released in 2004, produced by Jack White, and topped the country album charts. As of 2011, Lynn continues to tour and has received numerous awards in country and American music.

Childhood and early adulthood[link]

Born to Melvin "Ted" Webb (1906–1959) and Clara Marie (Ramey) Webb (1912–1981) and named in honor of Loretta Young,^[3] Loretta was the second of eight children. Three of her siblings also pursued country careers — her youngest sister, Crystal Gayle, sister Peggy Sue and brother Jay Lee Webb. She is also, on her mother's side, distantly related to country singer Patty Loveless (née Patricia Ramey). Lynn grew up in Butcher Hollow ("Butcher Holler"), a section of Van Lear, a mining community near Paintsville, Kentucky. Clara Ramey Webb was of Scots-Irish and Cherokee ancestry. Her father, Ted, was a coal miner, storekeeper, and farmer.

She was married to Oliver Vanetta Lynn, commonly known as "Doolittle", "Doo" or "Mooney" (for running moonshine), on January 10, 1948. Oliver was 21 years old; Loretta, born in 1932 according to Kentucky Birth Records, was almost 16 years old.^[1] In an effort to break free of the coal mining industry, the couple moved to the logging community of Custer, Washington. The Lynns had six children — Betty Sue, Jack Benny, Clara Marie (Cissy), Ernest Ray, and twins Peggy and Patsy (named after Patsy Cline). Before her marriage, Loretta regularly sang at churches and in local concerts. After she married, she stopped singing in public, focusing on family life. Instead, she passed her love of music on to her children, often singing to them around the house. When she was 21 years old, her husband bought her a $17.00 Harmony guitar as a birthday present, which she taught herself to play.^[4]

Original childhood home of Loretta Lynn in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky

Although married for almost fifty years, with six children,^[5] the Lynns' marriage was reportedly rocky up to Doolittle's death in 1996. In her 2002 autobiography, Still Woman Enough, and in an interview with CBS News the same year, Lynn recounts how her husband cheated on her regularly and once left her while she was giving birth.^[6] Lynn and her husband also fought frequently, but, she said, "he never hit me one time that I didn't hit him back twice".^[6]

Music career[link]

1960–1966: Early country success[link]

Lynn began singing in local clubs in 1959 and later formed her own band, The Trailblazers, which included her brother Jay Lee Webb. Lynn appeared in a televised Tacoma, Washington talent contest, hosted by Buck Owens, which was seen by Canadian Norm Burley, one of the founders of Zero Records.^[7]

Zero Records president, Canadian Don Grashey arranged a recording session in Hollywood, where four of Lynn's own compositions were recorded: "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl", "Whispering Sea", "Heartache Meet Mister Blues", and "New Rainbow". Her first release featured "Whispering Sea" and "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl". Musicians backing her on the single included 17 dollar acoustic guitarist Speedy West and guitarist Roy Lanham. With Zero's initial support, Lynn went on to become one of country music’s greats.

Lynn signed her first contract on February 2, 1960, with Zero Records. She recorded her first release that same month, with bandleader Speedy West on steel guitar, Harold Hensely on fiddle, Roy Lanham on guitar, Al Williams on bass, and Muddy Berry on drums. The material was recorded at United Western Recorders, in Hollywood and engineered by Don Blake and produced by Grashey.^[8]

In 1960, under the Zero label,^[9] Lynn recorded "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl." The Lynns toured the country to promote the release to country stations,^[7] while Grashey and Del Roy took the music to KFOX in Long Beach, California.^[8] When the Lynns reached Nashville, the song was a hit, climbing to #14 on Billboard's C & W Chart, and Lynn began cutting demo records for the Wilburn Brothers' Publishing Company.^[7] Through the Wilburns, Lynn was able to secure a contract with Decca Records.^[7] From the onset of her career fans took notice and rallied behind her all the way, with the first Loretta Lynn Fan Club formed in November 1960. By the end of the year Billboard magazine listed Loretta Lynn as the #4 Most Promising Country Female Artist.

Her relationship with the Wilburn Brothers and her appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, beginning in 1960,^[5] helped Lynn become the number one female recording artist in country music. Lynn's contract with the Wilburn Brothers gave them the publishing rights to her material. She was still fighting to regain these rights 30 years after ending her business relationship with them, but was ultimately denied the publishing rights. Lynn stopped writing music in the 1970s because of these contracts.

Although Kitty Wells had become the first major female country vocalist during the 1950s, by the time Lynn recorded her first record, only three other women - Patsy Cline, Skeeter Davis, and Jean Shepard - had become top stars. By the end of 1962, it was clear that Lynn was on her way to becoming the fourth. Lynn credits Cline as her mentor and best friend during those early years, and as fate would have it, Lynn would follow her as the most popular country vocalist of the early 1960s and 1970s.

Lynn released her first Decca single, "Success," in 1962, and it went straight to Number 6, beginning a string of Top 10 singles that would run through the rest of the decade and throughout the next. She was a hard honky-tonk singer for the first half of the '60s and rarely strayed from the genre.^[2] Between this time, Lynn soon began to regularly hit the Top 10 after 1964 with "Before I'm Over You", which peaked at #4, followed by "Wine, Women, and Song", which peaked at #3. In late 1964, Lynn also recorded a duet album with Lynn's idol and Country performer, Ernest Tubb. Their lead single, "Mr. and Mrs. Used to Be" peaked within the Top 15. Together, the pair recorded two more albums, "Singin' Again" (1967) and If we Put Our Heads Together (1969). In 1965, Lynn's solo career continued with three major hits that year, "Happy Birthday", "Blue Kentucky Girl" (later recorded and made a Top 10 hit in the 70s by Emmylou Harris), and "The Home You're Tearing Down". Lynn's label issued two albums that year, Songs from My Heart and Blue Kentucky Girl. While most of these songs were Top 10 Country hits, none of them reached #1.

Her first self-penned song to crack the Top Ten, 1966’s "Dear Uncle Sam”, was among the very first recordings to recount the human costs of the Vietnam War.^[10] In the latter half of the decade, although she still worked within the confines of honky tonk, her sound became more personal, varied, and ambitious, particularly lyrically. Beginning with 1966's Number 1 hit in Cash Box, "You Ain't Woman Enough", Lynn began writing songs with a feminist viewpoint, which was unheard of in country music. This song made Loretta Lynn the first country female recording artist to pen a #1 hit.^[11]

1967–1980: Breakthrough success[link]

In 1967, she reached #1 with "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)".^[12] Her album, Don't Come Home A-Drinkin, went to number one and became one of the first albums by a female country artist to reach sales of 500,000 copies.^[13] Her next album, Fist City was released in 1968. The title track became Lynn's second #1 hit, as a single in earlier that year, and the other single from the album, "What Kind of a Girl (Do You Think I Am)", peaked within the Top 10. In 1968, her next studio album, Your Squaw Is on the Warpath, spawned two Top 5 Country hits: the title track and "You've Just Stepped In (From Stepping Out on Me)". In 1969, her next single, "Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)", was Lynn's third chart-topper, followed by a subsequent Top 10, "To Make a Man (Feel Like a Man)".

Lynn was reportedly once inspired to write a song about a real woman she suspected was flirting with her husband. The song, "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)", was an instant hit and became one of Lynn's all-time most popular. Despite some criticism, Lynn's openness and honesty drew fans from around the nation, including some who were not previously familiar with country music.^{[citation needed]}

Lynn's career continued to be successful into the 1970s, especially following the success of her hit "Coal Miner's Daughter", which peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Chart in 1970. "Coal Miner's Daughter" tells the story of Lynn's life growing up in rural Butcher Holler, Kentucky. The song later served as the impetus for the best-selling biography (1976) and the Oscar-winning biopic starring Sissy Spacek (1980), both of which share the song's title.^[14] The song became Lynn's first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #83. Lynn would have a series of singles that would chart low on the Hot 100 between 1970 and 1975.

In 1971, she began a professional partnership with Conway Twitty. As a duo, Lynn and Twitty had five consecutive Number 1 hits between 1971 and 1975: their first release "After the Fire Is Gone" (1971),won them a Grammy award, "Lead Me On" (1971), "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (1973), "As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone" (1974), and "Feelins'" (1974). The hit-streak kick-started what became one of the most successful duos of country history. For four consecutive years (1972–1975), Lynn and Twitty were named the "Vocal Duo of the Year" by the Country Music Association. The Academy of Country Music named them the "Best Vocal Duet" in 1971, 1974, 1975 and 1976. The American Music awards selected them as the "Favorite Country Duo" in 1975, 1976 & 1977. The fan-voted Music City News readers voted them the #1 duet in 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980 and 1981. In addition to their five Number 1 singles, they had seven other Top 10 hits between 1976 and 1981.^[2] Lynn and Twitty are the most successful male/female duet team in country music history.

As a solo artist, Lynn continued to be very successful into 1971, achieving her fifth #1 solo hit, "One's on the Way", written by poet and songwriter Shel Silverstein. The songs that didn't reach the top spot peaked within the Top 10 during this time, "I Wanna Be Free", "You're Lookin' At Country" and 1972's "Here I Am Again", all released on separate albums. The next year, she became the first country star on the cover of Newsweek.^[15] In 1973, "Rated X" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Chart and was considered one of Lynn's most controversial hits. The next year, her next single, "Love Is the Foundation", also became a #1 country hit from her album of the same name. The second and last single from that album, "Hey Loretta", became a Top 5 hit. Lynn continued to reach the Top 10 until the end of the decade, including with 1975's "The Pill", considered to be the first song to discuss birth control, other than an obscure 1967 song in French, Pilule d'Or (The Golden Pill) by Luc Dominique, the former "Singing Nun".

Her unique material, which sassily and bluntly addressed issues in the lives of many women (particularly in the South), made her stand out among female country vocalists. As a songwriter, Lynn believed no topic was off limits, as long as it spoke to other women, and many of her songs were autobiographical.^[6] In the spring of 1976, Lynn released her autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, with the help of writer George Vecsey. It became a #1 bestseller, making Lynn the first country music artist to make the New York Times bestseller list. This opened a flood gate of country artists who followed with books.

In 1977, Lynn recorded I Remember Patsy, an album to friend and Country-pop singer, Patsy Cline, who died in a plane crash in 1963. The album covered some of Cline's biggest hits. The two singles Lynn released from the album, "She's Got You" and "Why Can't He Be You", became major hits. "She's Got You", which formerly went to #1 by Cline in 1962, went to #1 again that year by Lynn. "Why Can't He Be You" peaked at #7 shortly afterward.

Lynn enjoyed enormous success on country radio until the early 1980s, when a more pop-flavored type of country music began to dominate the market. She stayed within the country Top 10 up until the mid 1980s; however, most of her music by the late '70s had a slick pop sound to it. Lynn had her last Number 1 hit in early 1978 with her solo single, "Out of My Head and Back In My Bed." In 1979, she had two Top 5 hits, "I Can't Feel You Anymore" and "I've Got a Picture Of Us on My Mind", each from separate albums.

Lynn would sit for an hour or more on a stage giving autographs to her fans after a performance. Once in Salisbury, Maryland, the town's newspaper editor interviewed her while she was signing autographs. Editor Mel Toadvine asked her why she took so much time to sign autographs while more than 100 people stood in line all the way to the front of the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center. "These people are my fans," she told Toadvine. "I'll stay here until the very last one wants my autograph. Without these people, I am nobody; I love these people."^{[citation needed]}

In 1979, she became the spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble's Crisco Oil, and did TV commercials and print ads for them for a decade, ending in 1989. Because of her dominant hold on the 1970s, Lynn was named the "Artist of the Decade" by the Academy of Country Music. She is the first and only woman to win this honor.

1980–1989: Continued success[link]

On 5 March 1980, the film Coal Miner's Daughter debuted in Nashville. The film soon became the #1 box office hit in American and Loretta Lynn crossed over from country music superstar to American legend. The film starred Sissy Spacek as Loretta and Tommy Lee Jones as Mooney Lynn. The film received seven Academy Award nominations winning a Best Actress Oscar for Sissy Spacek and a slew of other top honors including a gold album for the soundtrack album, a Grammy nomination for Spacek's singing as Lynn, a Country Music Association & Academy of Country Music awards plus several Golden Globe awards as well.

The 1980s featured more hits ("Pregnant Again", "Naked In The Rain", "Somebody Led Me Away").^[16] Her 1980 and 1981 albums, Loretta and Lookin' Good spawned these hits. Lynn was the first woman in country music to have 50 Top 10 hits. Her last Top 10 record as a soloist was "I Lie" in 1982, but her releases continued to chart until the end of the decade. Lynn continued to have Top 20 hits throughout the 1980s. One of her last solo releases was 1985's "Heart Don't Do This to Me," which reached #19; her last Top 20 hit. In 1993, Lynn stopped releasing singles and focused more on touring than promoting. As a concert artist, she remained a top draw throughout her career, but by the early 1990s she drastically cut down the number of personal appearances due to the fragile health of her husband, who died in 1996.

Lynn's 1985 album, Just a Woman spawned a Top 40 hit. In 1987, Lynn lent her voice to a song on k.d. Lang's album, Shadowland with other Country stars, Kitty Wells and Brenda Lee called "Honky Tonk Angels Medley". They released a video for this medley, the album went gold and was Grammy nominated for the four women.

Lynn's 1988 album Who Was That Stranger would be her last solo album for a major record company as a solo artist. She remained one of country music’s most popular and well-loved stars. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988.^[17]

1990–present: Later music career[link]

Lynn returned to the public eye in 1993 with a hit CD. The trio album Honky Tonk Angels, recorded with Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette. The CD peaked at #6 on the Billboard Country charts and #68 on the Billboard Pop charts and charted a single with "Silver Threads and Golden Needles." They also released a popular video of this song. The album sold over 800,000 copies and was certified gold in the United States and Canada.The trio was also nominated for Grammy and Country Music Association awards. Loretta also lost her longtime singing partner Conway Twitty in 1993. The following year released a three-CD boxed set chronicling her career on MCA Records. In 1995, she taped a seven-week series on the Nashville Network (TNN) titled Loretta Lynn & Friends, and performed about 50 dates that year as well.^[18]

In 1995, Loretta was presented with the Pioneer Award at the 30th Academy of Country Music Awards.

In 1996, Lynn was widowed. In 2000, Lynn released her first album in several years, entitled Still Country. In it, she included a song, "I Can't Hear the Music," as a tribute to her late husband. She also released her first new single in over 10 years from the album, "Country In My Genes", when the single charted on the Billboard Country singles chart it made Lynn the first woman in Country Music to chart singles in five decades. While the album gained positive critical notices, sales were low in comparison with her previous releases. In 2002, Lynn published her second autobiography, Still Woman Enough and it became her secord New York Times bestseller peaking in the top ten. In 2004, she published a cookbook, You're Cookin' It Country.^{[citation needed]}

In 2004, Lynn made a comeback with the highly successful album Van Lear Rose, the second album on which Lynn either wrote or co-wrote every song. The album was produced by her "friend forever" ^[19] Jack White of The White Stripes, and featured guitar work and backup vocals by White. Her collaboration with White allowed Lynn to reach new audiences and generations, even garnering high praise in magazines that specialize in mainstream and alternative rock music, such as Spin and Blender.^[20] Rolling Stone voted the album the second best of the year for 2004. (White has long been an admirer of Lynn and claims she is his favorite singer. He has covered several songs of hers, including the controversial "Rated X.")

Loretta Lynn is working on the follow-up to 2004's Van Lear Rose, plus a new CD of re-recorded versions of some of her hits over the past 45 years. She is hoping to release both CDs by the end of 2011.

In late 2010, Lynn released a new album titled Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn, featuring stars like Reba McEntire, Faith Hill, Paramore, and Carrie Underwood to re-record Loretta's hits over the past 45 years. The CD produced a top ten video hit on GAC with the lead single "Coal Miner's Daughter" that Lynn recorded with Miranda Lambert & Sheryl Crow. The single cracked the Billboard singles chart making Lynn the first female country recording artist to chart records in six decades.^{[citation needed]} The trio also received an Academy of Country Music, CMT Video and Country Music Association nominations.

In 2012, Lynn published her third autobiography, Honky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyrics.^[21]

Personal life[link]

Lynn is the second of eight children. Some of her siblings, including Jay Lee Webb and Peggy Sue, have pursued short-lived country music careers in the past. The most successful of Lynn's siblings on the Country charts is Crystal Gayle. Lynn is also distantly related to country singer Patty Loveless (née Patricia Ramey).

Lynn was married to Doolittle "Doo" Lynn from 1948 until his death from diabetes in 1996. They were married in Kentucky three months shy of her 16th birthday.^[22] Lynn had four children before she turned 21, and then had twins in the early 1960s: Peggy (Rita) and Patsy Lynn. Patsy Lynn was named in honor of Patsy Cline. Lynn's twin daughters formed their own Country music duo group, The Lynns, in 1998. Jack Benny Lynn, Loretta's eldest son, drowned July 22, 1984, while trying to ford the Duck River at the family ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee.^[23] He was 34 years old.

Lynn owns a ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, billed as "The 7th Largest Attraction in Tennessee," featuring a recording studio, museums, lodging, and other attractions. For over 30 years the ranch has hosted the Loretta Lynn's Amateur Motocross National Championship, the world's largest amateur motocross race, in addition to GNCC Racing events. The ranch is centered around her large plantation home, along with a replica of her Butcher Hollow cabin. She no longer lives in the plantation home, but tours of the house are available.

In 2006, Lynn underwent shoulder surgery after injuring herself in a fall; complications occurred during the operation, where she died during the surgery, with the doctors having to revive her before they could finish the surgery procedure, which was successful.^[24][25]

Honors and awards[link]

Lynn has written over 160 songs and released 70 albums. She has had ten Number 1 albums and sixteen Number 1 singles on the country charts. Lynn has won dozens of awards from many different institutions, including four Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, eight Broadcast Music Incorporated awards, twelve Academy of Country Music, eight Country Music Association and twenty-six fan voted Music City News awards. She was the first woman in Country Music to receive a certified gold album for 1967's "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)"

In 1972, Lynn was the first woman named "Entertainer of the Year" by the Country Music Association, and is one of six women to have received CMA's highest award. She was named "Artist of the Decade" for the 1970s by the Academy of Country Music. Lynn was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988^[5] and the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999.^[26] She was also the recipient of Kennedy Center Honors in 2003. Lynn is also ranked 65th on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll^[27] and was the first female country to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977.^[28]

In 2001, "Coal Miner's Daughter" was named among NPR's "100 Most Significant Songs of the 20th Century". In 2002, Lynn had the highest ranking #3 for any living female CMT television's special of the 40 Greatest Women of Country Music.^{[citation needed]}

On November 4, 2004, Lynn, who has been a BMI affiliate for over 45 years, was honored as a BMI Icon at the BMI Country Awards.^[29]

In 2008 Loretta Lynn was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City. To date Lynn had been inducted into more music Halls Of Fame than any other female recording artist. In 2010, Lynn received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for her 50 years in country music.^[30]

Loretta Lynn appeared at the 44th Annual Country Music Awards on November 10, 2010 and was honored for fifty years in country music.^[31] Also that year, Lynn was also presented with a rose named in her honour.^[32]

In November 2010 Sony Music released a tribute CD to Loretta Lynn titled Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn. The CD featured Kid Rock, Reba McEntire, Sheryl Crow, Miranda Lambert, Alan Jackson, Gretchen Wilson,The White Stripes, Martina Mc Bride, Paramore, Steve Earl, Faith Hill. In 2011 Lynn was nominated for an Academy of Country Music, CMT Video and Country Music Association award for "Vocal Event of the Year" with Miranda Lambert and Sheryl Crow for "Coal Miner's Daughter" released as a video and single off the CD.^{[citation needed]}

Controversies and politics[link]

At the height of her popularity, Lynn was subject to much controversy. She possibly had more banned songs than any other artist in the history of country music,^{[citation needed]} including "Rated "X"," about the double standards divorced women face, "Wings Upon Your Horns," about the loss of teenage virginity, and "The Pill", lyrics by T.D. Bayless, about a wife and mother becoming liberated via the birth control pill. Her song, "Dear Uncle Sam", released in 1966 during the Vietnam War, describes a wife's anguish at the loss of a husband to war. It has been included in live performances during the Iraq War.^[7]

Though Lynn has been outspoken about her views on often-controversial social and political subjects, she stated, "I don't like to talk about things where you're going to get one side or the other unhappy. My music has no politics."^[33] She has visited the White House six times since 1976, under both Republican and Democratic presidents,^[34] and in her autobiography, she said her father was a Republican and her mother was a Democrat. In 2002's Still Woman Enough, she discusses her longtime friendship and support for Jimmy Carter,^[35] yet during the same time period she made her only recorded political donations ($4,300) to Republican candidates and Republican-aligned PACs. She is known to have a friendly relationship with both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, who awarded her Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 ^[36] At other times, she has also questioned both political parties: "Dear Uncle Sam" was written in 1966 during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration to "recount the human costs of the Vietnam War", and she made a return to her live sets during the Iraq War under George W. Bush's presidency.

While a recognized "advocate for ordinary women", she is also famously suspicious of the Women's Liberation movement.^[37] She once stated, "I'm not a big fan of Women's Liberation, but maybe it will help women stand up for the respect they're due." Along these lines, her music has spanned from "The Pill" and "Rated X" to more culturally-conservative gospel albums.^[38]

She allowed PETA to use her song "I Wanna Be Free" in a public service campaign encouraging people not to chain their dogs outside.^[39]

She often claimed to have been married when she was 13 years old. She was actually married when she was 15, which was not unusual in the South at the time.^[1]

Discography[link]

Studio Albums

See also[link]

• Academy of Country Music
• List of country musicians
• Country Music Hall of Fame

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• In The Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998. ISBN 0-375-70082-X
• Are You Ready for the Country: Elvis, Dylan, Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock, Peter Dogget, Penguin Books, 2001. ISBN 0-14-026108-7
• Dreaming Out Loud: Garth Brooks, Wynonna Judd, Wade Hayes and the changing face of Nashville, Bruce Feiler, Avon Books, 1998. ISBN 0-380-97578-5

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Loretta Lynn

• Official website
• Loretta Lynn's Radio appearance on "The Motley Fool"
• Loretta Lynn at the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Loretta Lynn at the Grand Ole Opry
• Official Website of the Van Lear, Kentucky Historical Society, Inc.
• 60 Minutes II interview with Loretta Lynn and Jack White
• Coal “Minors” Daughter? New Data Offers Light and Controversy on Loretta Lynn on "AwaitingTheFlood.com"

Dame Vera Lynn
Vera Lynn at the War and Peace Show, in July 2009
Background information
Birth name	Vera Margaret Welch
Born	(1917-03-20) 20 March 1917 (age 95) London (East Ham), England
Genres	Traditional pop
Years active	1935–present
Labels	UK Decca/London, HMV

Dame Vera Lynn, DBE (born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917) ^[1] is an English singer-songwriter and actress whose musical recordings and performances were enormously popular during World War II.

During the war she toured Egypt, India and Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops. She became known, and is still referred to, as "The Forces' Sweetheart"; the songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again", "The White Cliffs of Dover", A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square and "There'll Always Be an England".

She remained popular after the war, appearing on radio and television in the UK and the United States and recording such hits as "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" and "My Son, My Son".

In 2009 she became the oldest living artist to make it to No. 1 on the British album chart, at the age of 92.^[2] She has devoted much time and energy to charity work connected with ex-servicemen, disabled children and breast cancer. She is still held in great affection by veterans of the Second World War and in 2000 was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the twentieth century.^[3]

Early life[link]

Vera Lynn was born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917 in East Ham, in what was then the county of Essex, now East London. When she began performing publicly at the age of seven, she adopted her grandmother's maiden name (Lynn) as her stage name.^[4] Her first radio broadcast, with the Joe Loss Orchestra, was in 1935. At this point she was being featured on records released by dance bands including those of Loss and of Charlie Kunz.^[5] In 1936 her first solo record was released on the Crown label, "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire".^[6] This label was absorbed by Decca Records in 1938.^[7] After a short stint with Loss she stayed with Kunz for a few years during which she recorded several standard musical pieces. In 1937, she moved to the aristocrat of British dance bands, Bert Ambrose.^[8]

In 1939, during the Phoney War, the Daily Express asked British servicemen to name their favourite musical performers: Vera Lynn came out on top and as a result became known as 'the Forces' Sweetheart'.^[9]

In 1941, during the darkest days of World War II, Lynn began her own radio programme, Sincerely Yours, sending messages to British troops serving abroad.^[5] She and her quartet performed songs most requested by the soldiers. Lynn also visited hospitals to interview new mothers and send personal messages to their husbands overseas.^[10]

She is best known for her 1942 recording of the popular song "We'll Meet Again", written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles; the nostalgic lyrics ("We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day") were very popular during the war and made the song one of its emblematic hits. She also appeared in the 1943 film of that name.^[11] Her other great wartime hit was "The White Cliffs of Dover", words by Nat Burton, music by Walter Kent.^[12] Contrary to later reports, she neither sang nor recorded "Rose of England" during this time and it was only in 1966 when her producer, David Gooch, selected it for her album More Hits of the Blitz that she became familiar with it. The album itself was a follow-up to Hits of the Blitz produced by Norman Newell.

During the war years she joined ENSA and toured Egypt, India and Burma,^[13] giving outdoor concerts for the troops. In 1985 it was announced that she would receive the Burma Star for entertaining British guerrilla units in Japanese-occupied Burma.^[14] She is one of the last surviving major entertainers of the war years.

Post-war career[link]

Vera Lynn in 1973

Lynn's Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart became the first record by a British performer to top the charts in the United States,^[15] remaining there for nine weeks. She also appeared regularly for a time on Tallulah Bankhead's U.S. radio programme, The Big Show.^[16] "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart", along with "The Homing Waltz" and "Forget-Me-Not", gave Lynn a remarkable three entries on the first UK Singles Chart, a top 12 (which actually contained 15 songs owing to tied positions).

Her popularity continued in the 1950s, peaking with "My Son, My Son", a number-one hit in 1954^[17] which she co-wrote with Gordon Melville Rees. In 1960 she left Decca Records after nearly 25 years, and joined EMI.^[18] She recorded for EMI's Columbia, MGM and HMV labels. In 1967, she recorded "It Hurts To Say Goodbye",^[19] a song which hit the top 10 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart."

Vera Lynn was the subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions, in October 1957 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre, and in December 1978, for an episode which was broadcast on 1 January 1979,^[20] when Andrews surprised her at the Cafe Royal, London.

She hosted her own variety series on BBC1 in the late 1960s and early 1970s^[21] and was a frequent guest on other variety shows, notably The 1972 Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show. In 1972 she was a key performer in the BBC anniversary programme Fifty Years Of Music. In 1976 she hosted the BBC's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating the pop music hits of the period 1952-1976 to commemorate the start of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee year. For ITV she presented a 1977 TV special to launch her album Vera Lynn in Nashville, which included pop songs of the 1960s and country songs.^[22]

The Royal Variety Performance included appearances by Vera Lynn on three occasions: 1960, 1975 and 1986.^[23]

Lynn is also notable for being the only artist to have a chart span on the British single and album charts reaching from the chart's inception to the 21st century — in 1952 having three singles in the first ever singles chart, complied by New Musical Express,^[24] and most recently having a #1 album with We'll Meet Again — The Very Best Of Vera Lynn^[25] (see below).

Honours[link]

Lynn was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, and promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1975.^[5] She was made an Officer of the Order of St John (OStJ) in 1998 and, in 2000, Dame Vera received a special "Spirit of the 20th Century" Award.^[9]

Charity work[link]

In 1953 Lynn formed the cerebral palsy charity SOS (The Stars Organisation for Spastics)^[26][27] and became its chairperson.

The Vera Lynn Charity Breast Cancer Research Trust was founded in 1976, with Lynn its chairperson and later its president.^[28]

In 2002 Lynn became president of the cerebral palsy charity The Dame Vera Lynn Trust for Children with Cerebral Palsy, and hosted a celebrity concert on its behalf at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.^[29]

On 19 August 2008 Lynn became the Patron of the Forces Literary Organisation Worldwide for ALL,^[30] a charitable not-for-profit organisation which helps those affected by war.

On 16 November 2010 Dame Vera Lynn became Patron of The Dover War Memorial Project,^[31] a voluntary not-for-profit group remembering the Fallen from Dover, Kent, England.

Later years[link]

Lynn sang outside Buckingham Palace in 1995 in a ceremony that marked the golden jubilee of VE Day. This was her last known public performance.^[32]

The United Kingdom's VE Day Diamond Jubilee ceremonies in 2005 included a concert in Trafalgar Square, London, in which Lynn made an unannounced appearance.^[32] She made a speech praising the veterans and calling upon the younger generation always to remember their sacrifice and joined in with a few bars of "We'll Meet Again". Following that year's Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, Dame Vera encouraged the Welsh mezzo-soprano singer Katherine Jenkins to assume the mantle of "Forces' Sweetheart".^[33]

In her speech Lynn said, "These boys gave their lives and some came home badly injured, and for some families life would never be the same. We should always remember, we should never forget, and we should teach the children to remember."

In September 2008 Lynn helped launch a new social history recording website, "The Times of My Life", at the Cabinet War Rooms in London.^[34]

On 3 September 2009 Andrew Castle hosted Lynn on GMTV to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Britain's declaring war on Germany. At the end of the interview she sang a verse from "We'll Meet Again," at Castle's request.

Her autobiography Some Sunny Day was published in August 2009, when Lynn was 92. She had written two previous memoirs: Vocal Refrain (1975) and We'll Meet Again (1989).^[35]

On 18 February 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Lynn was suing the British National Party (BNP) for using "the White Cliffs of Dover" on an anti-immigration album without her permission. Her lawyer claimed the album seemed to link Lynn, who does not align with any political party, to the party's views by association.^[36]

On 13 September 2009 Lynn became the oldest living artist to make it into No. 1 in the British album chart, at the age of 92,^[37] passing such veterans of music as American jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong and French singer Charles Aznavour. Her collection We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn entered the chart at number 20 on 30 August, and then climbed to number 2 the following week, before reaching the top position,^[38] outselling both the Arctic Monkeys and the Beatles.^[39] In its third week the album went gold with sales of over 100,000.