Country music legend Loretta Lynn has had an incredible career that’s spanned more than six decades. She’s been touring steadily since the 1960s, and only recently decided to give up performing on stage due to a health issue. So what’s up with the music icon today? Is Loretta Lynn still alive? Here’s an overview of the singer’s decades-long career, as well as an update on Loretta Lynn’s health.
Loretta Lynn Was Born In 1932 And Is Still Alive
Loretta Lynn turns 90 years old on April 14, 2022. Born and raised in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, she was the eldest of eight siblings and first started singing while helping raise her brothers and sisters. “In Kentucky, when I was growing up with my sisters and brothers, we all sang and rocked the babies to sleep, you know?” she said in a 2021 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. “But that was about as far as we ever did, you know?”
Lynn didn’t start performing outside of the house until her husband, whom she married when she was just 15 years old, encouraged her to embark on a singing career. “I had never sang in front of anybody till my husband pushed me out there, you know? I’d never been out and sang for anybody,” she explained.
Her Incredible Country Music Career
Once Lynn did get out in front of a crowd, it didn’t take long for her career to take off. After a few years of singing in local clubs, she released her first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” in 1960. That same year, Billboard listed Lynn as the fourth Most Promising Country Artist and she quickly became a fixture of the trendy Nashville country music scene.
Since that time, Lynn has released 50 studio albums, 36 compilation albums, and two live albums, as well as video albums and box sets. You Ain’t Woman Enough, released in 1967, was Lynn’s first number-one album on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Albums chart. The album’s single, “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” reached number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, making it her biggest hit up to that point.
In 1980, Loretta Lynn’s profile shot even higher after the release of the film, The Coal Miner’s Daughter. Based on Lynn’s autobiography and song of the same name, the biopic starred Sissy Spacek as Lynn and Tommy Lee Jones as Lynn’s husband, Doolittle “Mooney” Lynn. In addition to raising Lynn’s profile and bringing more attention to her music, the movie was a monster hit and received seven Academy Award nominations, including the Best Actress award won by Spacek.
While Lynn describes this time as the peak of her career, she also admits it wasn’t easy. “I think the highest point of my career was in the late ‘70s,” the singer said in a 2021 interview with AARP magazine. “I had number-one songs, a best-selling book, and a movie made about my life. But I think it was also the lowest point for me as well. Life gets away from you so fast when you move fast. When I look back on that time, I can’t help but feel sorry for myself because I didn’t really understand all that was happening. I didn’t get to enjoy it like I wished I would’ve.”
Is She Still Working Today?
Though Lynn decided to stop touring in 2017 after suffering a stroke, she didn’t stop making albums and did perform a show on her birthday in 2019. In March of 2021, at the age of 89, the country icon released her 50th studio album, Still Woman Enough.
The “Whispering Sea” singer also owns the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Tennessee, which is one of the state’s largest campgrounds and top tourist attractions. Boasting 3,500 acres, it hosts all kinds of cool music events, features a museum, and is filled with fun activities for lovers of the outdoors.
Is She Still In Good Health?
For someone who’s 90 years old, it appears as though Lynn is doing pretty well health-wise. She fully recovered from her 2017 stroke, but she fell while at home and broke her hip a year later. The tabloids seized on this moment to claim she was near death. However, the country icon quickly shot back at the claims with a Facebook video.
“Well, through the years they’ve said I’m broke, homeless, cheating, drinking, gone crazy, terminally ill, and even dead! Poor things can’t ever get it right,” she wrote in the caption accompanying the video. “I guess if those old pesky tabloids are harassing me then they’re giving someone else a break……but I’m about an inch from taking ’em to Fist City!”
It sounds like Loretta Lynn is as fierce and feisty as ever!