Loretta Lynn was an American singer-songwriter with a career that spanned six decades in country music, releasing multiple gold albums. She had hits such as “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man,), “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” In 1980, the film “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was made based on her life.

On January 10, 1948, 15-year-old Loretta married, and she left Kentucky and moved to a logging community in Washington state. She was seven months pregnant with the first of her six children. The happiness and heartache of her early years of marriage would help to inspire Lynn's songwriting.

In 1953, she was given her first guitar. She proceeded to teach herself to play. Over the next three years her playing improved, and she started her own band, Loretta and the Trailblazers. She cut her first record, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” in February 1960.

Since then her career was on a steady rise, and as troubled as her marriage was, it was her husband that gave her the courage to succeed as a singer.

She said:

“I married my husband when I wasn't but a child, and he was my life from that day on. But as important as my youth and upbringing was, there's something else that made me stick to him. He thought I was something special, more special than anyone else in the world, and never let me forget it. That belief would be hard to shove out the door. He was my security, my safety net. And just remember, I'm explainin', not excusin'... He was a good man and a hard worker. But he was an alcoholic, and it affected our marriage all the way through.”

Loretta Lynn died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 90.