Trailblazing Facts About Loretta Lynn, The Coal Miner's Daughter
Loretta Lynn’s rags-to-riches story is the stuff country songs are made of. Born to a poor family in a Kentucky mining town, she married at just 15 and had a family before she ever picked up a guitar.
But when Lynn did try her hand at music, she learned quickly. By the time she turned 40, the quiet country housewife had become an iconic singer-songwriter.
Loretta Lynn Facts
1. Down in the Holler
As her signature song "Coal Miner's Daughter" claims, Loretta Lynn really was a coal miner’s daughter. She was one of eight children born to coal miner Ted Webb and his wife, Clary. The Webbs lived in Butcher Holler, Kentucky and times were hard. Clary Webb would glue pages of the Sears catalogue to the walls because the family couldn't afford wallpaper.
2. Young Love
Lynn was just 15 years old when she met and married Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, a 21-year-old moonshiner from Butcher Holler. The couple moved fast.
They had only been dating for a month before they walked down the aisle and by the time Lynn was 17, she had already given birth to three of their six children.
Their marriage could be rocky at times, and Doolittle’s drinking and womanizing gave Loretta plenty of material for her songs, but the couple stayed together right up until Doolittle’s death in 1996.
3. Lying About Her Age
For years, Loretta claimed that she was just 13 years old when she married her husband Doolittle Lynn. She even said so in her biography, Coal Miner’s Daughter. When journalists found Lynn's real birth certificate, however, they discovered that Loretta had lied…she was actually 16 when she tied the know, which, to be fair, is still incredibly young.