Being the eldest daughter of the family, Loretta Lynn siblings grew up with her in the coal-mining hills of Kentucky. And their life was far from perfect.
Once the undisputed queen of country music, Lynn has achieved massive stardom within her career spanning six decades. She took home more than a dozen awards and released even more albums – while plenty of Loretta Lynn songs made it atop the chart that it’s already quite difficult to track.
But it actually wasn’t an easy road to fame for the country music legend.
Born in 1932, Loretta Lynn was the second child of eight children from a family of a coal miner in Butcher Holler. However, her early childhood years happened to be the worst economic downturn in history, and the family was not spared by the awful conditions brought by the Great Depression.
The Webbs lived in a rustic home in the mountains – about a mile from the main road. With only one room, the family also had to endure the challenges of having no electricity, no running water, and no indoor toilet. Her mother would tear out pages from magazines and newspapers to fill in the log walls’ gaps to protect them from the cold wind or keep the snow out.
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Lynn would wear old burlap flour sacks to school and would often walk barefoot. Going to bed with an empty stomach has also become pretty normal.
While growing up, Lynn would help her mother take care of her siblings, which is how she started singing. When she was seven, she would put her four baby brothers and sisters to sleep by holding one of them a time in her arms, rocking back and forth and singing the songs her mother taught her – like “The Great Titanic.”
While the country singer’s family lacked worldly wealth, it is filled with love for each other – as well as a passion for music. The Webb family was actually one talented group of people.
Find out all about Loretta’s siblings on the next page!
