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Country music star Loretta Lynn has died.
The coal miner's daughter turned country music icon was 90 years old.
"Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, October 4th, in her sleep at home in
her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills," the family said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. They asked
for privacy as they grieve and said a memorial will be announced later.
Throughout Lynn's career, which spanned 60 years, she won every music award known to musicians, and was inducted
into the County Music Hall of Fame in 1988.
Lynn knew her songs were trailblazing, especially for country music, but said she was just writing the truth that
so many rural women like her experienced.
"I could see that other women was goin’ through the same thing, ‘cause I worked the clubs. I wasn’t the only one
that was livin’ that life and I’m not the only one that’s gonna be livin’ today what I’m writin'," she told the Associated Press in 1995.
The Country Music Hall of Famer wrote fearlessly about sex and love, cheating husbands, divorce and birth control
and sometimes got in trouble with radio programmers for material from which even rock performers once shied away.
Her biggest hits came in the 1960s and '70s, including "Coal Miner’s Daughter," "You Ain’t Woman Enough," "The Pill,"
"Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "Rated X" and "You're Looking at Country."
She was known for appearing in floor-length, wide gowns with elaborate embroidery or rhinestones, many created by her
longtime personal assistant and designer Tim Cobb.
Lynn wrote an autobiography in 1969 which was turned into the movie "Coal Miner's Daughter" in 1980. Sissy Spacek's portrayal
of Lynn won her an Academy Award, and the film was also nominated for best picture, helping the country music star reach
her widest audience yet.
In 1972, she was the first woman ever given the Entertainer Of The Year award by the Country Music Association.
Just three years later, she was the first woman to be given the same award by the Academy of Country Music.
At one point in her career, she teamed up with country music star Conway Twitty and the two wrote hit songs
including, "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man."
Lynn grew up in Kentucky and used her experience in Appalachia to write her music. Her childhood involved singing,
and she came from a musical family. Her father played the banjo and her mother played the guitar.
Lynn married Oliver Lynn in 1948 at the age of 15, according to court records.
She and her husband were married nearly 50 years before he died in 1996. They had six children: Betty, Jack, Ernest and Clara,
and then twins Patsy and Peggy. She had 17 grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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