Loretta Lynn (born Loretta Webb April 14, 1932), 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) 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.
Plot
At only thirteen years of age, Loretta Webb marries Doolittle Lynn and is soon responsible for a sizeable family. Loretta appears destined to a life of homemaking, but Doolittle recognises his wife's musical talent, and buys her a guitar as an anniversary present one year. This gift sets Loretta Lynn on the gruelling, tumultuous path to country music greatness.
Keywords: 1950s, abusive-husband, affection, apostrophe-in-title, appalachia, based-on-autobiography, blockbuster, bus-tour, car-crash, character's-journey-shown-on-map
She was married at 13. She had four kids by the time she was 20. She's been hungry and poor. She's been loved and cheated on. She became a singer because it was the only thing she could do. She became a star because it was the only way she could do it.
Lee Dollarhide: [after watching Doolittle drive his Jeep up the side of a hill to win a bet] Damn! That son of a gun Doolittle don't know the meanin' of the word quit.::Ted Webb: He sure went to a lot of trouble to get on top of a pile of nothin'.
Radio station manager: You're number fourteen, nationwide!
Loretta Lynn: Hey Doolittle Lynn, who's that sow you got wallowin' in your jeep?::Girl: What'd you call me?::Loretta Lynn: A sow, that's a woman pig!
[after discovering Mooney with a young woman]::Loretta Lynn: I'm warning you Doolittle, I'd better never catch you with trash like that again!
Doolittle: Mr. Webb, me and Loretta are fixin' to get married, if it's alright with you.::Ted Webb: Go ask Clary.::[Doolittle walks through the house to the kitchen]::Doolittle: Mrs. Webb, me and Loretta is thinkin' about gettin' married tomorrow.::Clara Webb: Go ask Ted.::[Doolittle walks back onto the porch, then back into the house]::Loretta Webb: Doolittle, what are you doin'?::Doolittle: Ted says go ask Clary; Clary says go ask Ted; I don't know.::Loretta Webb: Wait 'til they go to bed; then you can catch them together. 'Less they'll keep you runnin' back and forth all night long.
Doolittle: Loretta, I'm leavin' Kentucky. Goin' out west somewhere, find me another job. That damn coal mine about to kill me. There ain't nothin' in Kentucky for me except a chest full of coal dust and being an old man before I'm forty; ask your daddy, he'll tell you.::Loretta: Were you goin' without me?::Doolittle: Just long enough to get the money to send for you.::Loretta: You promised my daddy you wouldn't take me far off.::Doolittle: Darlin' you're goin' to have to decide if you're my wife or his daughter. Besides, you got to go; I love you.::Loretta: You better come up with a better reason than that.::Doolittle: Hop in; I'll run you back up to the house. What are you doin' in this bottom anyway?::Loretta: I came to see the doctor.::Doolittle: What for, you sick?::Loretta: Yeah, I'm sick alright; I'm goin' to have a baby.::Doolittle: [laughing] You know, Loretta, we may have found something you know how to do.
[Doolittle walks out of the door after an argument with Loretta]::Loretta: Doolittle; are you leavin'?::Doolittle: [come back in the house] Naw, Loretta; *I* ain't leavin'.::[Loretta walks up to her parents' house]::Ted: Well, look whose back!::Loretta: Doolittle's done throwed me out.::Clara: Maybe it ain't to late to stop you from ruinin' your life.::Ted: I believe married life is makin' you fat, girl.::Clara: [to herself] Oh, no!
Loretta: I done wrote me a song Betty Sue. Your mama dadgome songwriter now.::Betty Sue Lynn: That's a nice song mama.::Loretta Lynn: Thank you baby
[the morning after the wedding night]::Loretta: This food's cold.::Doolittle: That's 'cause it froze on the way over here from the damn restaurant. You want a hot breakfast, you got to come with me.::Loretta: You think I'm going over there with you and all them folks knowin' what we been doin' in here?::Doolittle: Hell's Bells, Loretta. You think this is somethin' the rest of the world ain't caught onto yet? They don't give a damn.
Lee Dollarhide: [to Doolittle] If you're born in Kentucky you've got three choices; coal mine, moonshine or move it on down the line.