Lynn died at her home in Tennessee

Country queen Loretta Lynn has died at the age of 90. The family shares that Lynn passed peacefully in her sleep from natural causes early this morning (Tues, Oct 4th) at home in rural Tennessee.

“Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills,” her family shares.

The family asks for privacy while they grieve. Information about a memorial service/celebration of life will be made available at a later date. In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to the Loretta Lynn Foundation.

Over the course of her 60-year career, the famous native of Butcher Hollow, KY amassed a staggering 51 Top 10 hits, garnered every accolade available in music from Grammy awards to induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and broke down barriers for women everywhere with songs like “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Fist City” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

Thanks to the Oscar-winning 1980 film Coal Miner’s Daughter starring Sissy Spacek, Lynn’s story and songs were brought to an even wider audience, amplifying her impact on several generations of songwriters and artists in various genres including Jack White, with whom Lynn made the Grammy-winning 2004 album Van Lear Rose.

“It is not enough to say today that country music has lost Loretta Lynn, but rather the world has lost a true music legend,” Country Music Association CEO Sarah Trahern shares. “Loretta was a woman whose contributions and impact inspired countless artists and transformed the Country genre into a universal art form. She was a Country Music Hall of Fame member and the first woman to receive a CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year. As a trailblazing songwriter, she bravely wrote about socially and culturally relevant topics that came to define a generation. I’ll personally remember Loretta for her spirit, artistry and genius that rivaled contemporaries like Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.”

“The Academy joins Country Music fans all over the world in mourning the passing today of icon Loretta Lynn,” the Academy of Country shares. “Known best as the undisputed Queen of Country Music via number one songs such as ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ ‘Fist City’ and “Don’t Come Home a ‘Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind),’ Lynn has been country music’s ultimate storyteller for over fifty years. She blazingly captured some of the pains and tribulations of being a wife and mother in her music and broke down countless barriers for women everywhere, continuing to inspire innumerable artists today.”

“The story of Loretta Lynn’s life is unlike any other, yet she drew from that story a body of work that resonates with people who might never fully understand her bleak and remote childhood, her hardscrabble early days, or her adventures as a famous and beloved celebrity,” states Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young. “In a music business that is often concerned with aspiration and fantasy, Loretta insisted on sharing her own brash and brave truth.”

Throughout her 80s, Lynn continued to write new songs and, in 2016, returned to the charts with the Grammy-nominated Full Circle, the first in a series of critically acclaimed albums produced by her daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell, and John Carter Cash at Cash Cabin Studio in Hendersonville, TN. She followed up with the seasonal classic White Christmas Blue in 2016 and 2018’s Grammy-nominated Wouldn’t It Be Great, a combination of newly written songs and fresh interpretations of her catalog. In 2021, the American music icon released Still Woman Enough, a celebration of women in country music; her 50th studio album — not including her ten studio duet collaborations with Conway Twitty — Still Woman Enough featured a title track co-written with Patsy Lynn Russell and a deeply emotional “Coal Miner’s Daughter Recitation,” commemorating the 50th anniversary of the release of Lynn’s signature song (October 5, 1970) and album (January 4, 1971).

Lynn’s music and achievements were repeatedly recognized by all of the major awards bodies. She joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1962, won four Grammy awards, seven American Music Awards and eight Country Music Association awards. She was the first woman to win the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music awards for Entertainer of the Year. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, and was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. She sold over 45 million albums worldwide.

Lynn was pre-deceased by her husband of 48 years Oliver Vanetta “Doolittle” Lynn, her daughter Betty Sue Lynn and son Jack Benny Lynn. She is survived by her daughters Patsy Lynn Russell, Peggy Lynn, Clara (Cissie) Marie Lynn and her son Ernest Ray Lynn as well as grandchildren Lori Lynn Smith, Ethan Lyell, Elizabeth Braun, Tayla Lynn, Jack Lynn, Ernest Ray Lynn Jr., Katherine Condya, Alexandria Lynn, Jasyntha Connelly, Megan Horkins, Anthony Brutto, Jason Lynn, Wesley Lynn, Levi Lynn, Emmy Rose Russell, David Russell, Lucca Marchetti and step grandchildren David Greer, Jennafer Russell, Melody Russell and Natalie Rapp, and her great-grandchildren.