Country music legend Loretta Lynn is three years older than she has led people to believe, an age change that undermines the story she told of being married at 13 in Coal Miner’s Daughter, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.
Lynn’s birth certificate on file at the state Office of Vital Statistics in Frankfort, Ky., shows that Loretta Webb was born on April 14, 1932, in Johnson County, Kentucky. That makes her 80 years old, not 77.
In Coal Miner’s Daughter, the autobiography that became an Academy Award-winning film, Lynn told a different story — that she was married at 13 and was a mother of four by 18.
Most books and public references to Lynn list her current age as 77.
When contacted by the AP, Lynn’s spokeswoman, Nancy Russell of Nashville, Tenn., declined comment. She said that Lynn has told her before in no uncertain terms, “If anyone asks how old I am, tell them it’s none of their business!”
Lynn’s younger brother, Herman Webb, declined to disclose Lynn’s age, although he said there might have been a “mix-up” with Lynn’s paperwork after she moved to Nashville to launch her country career.
Her parents and many other relatives are dead, including her husband, O.V. “Mooney” Lynn.
