Loretta Lynn_ Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn [58]
Here I am with Doyle and Teddy Wilburn, back in 1963, when I was starting to travel with ’em. I made that little white outfit myself, and they were trying to get me to wear high heels.
Two of the greatest people I have ever met, Owen Bradley and Ernest Tubb, join me during a recording session in 1964. I don’t remember what song I was singing, but it wasn’t “One’s on the Way.” In fact, as it turned out, two were on the way. I was eight months pregnant with my twins.
Once in a while I get inspired and finish my act with the “hillbilly hoedown.” That’s how Mommy used to dance while listening to the radio back home. I guess nobody’s gonna make me an offer to dance in the ballet, but it’s fun.
I brought my gang to the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. This one soldier joined me and Kenny Starr in a little tune. I try to visit people in hospitals when I can, smiling and joking around while I’m there. But when I leave, I just start crying.
Never mind those pictures of me laughing—somebody caught me sitting around backstage, thinking about my life. This is the way I really am inside.
We do most of our traveling in our special bus. My private bedroom is in the back, and the boys sleep in bunks in the middle. Jim Webb is the driver. You look at the size of that boy, and you know why I feel safe on that bus.
United Talent, Inc.
Pretty fancy bunch of coal miners, don’t you think? These are my boys: (front row, left to right) Bob Hempker, steel guitar; Don Ballinger, front man; Dave Thornhill, lead guitar; Gene Dunlap, piano; (back row) Chuck Flynn, bass; Ken Riley, drums.
They held “Loretta Lynn Day” in Georgia on February 21, 1974. They asked me to address the state legislature and I told ’em: “I don’t know what you-all are doing, but I sure hope it comes out all right!”
Three of the best friends anybody could have, Loudilla, Kay, and Loretta Johnson (left to right), are the presidents of my fan club. They are three different personalities, and I love ’em all.
At a quiet moment during rehearsal, David Skepner and I trade words of wisdom. David is my manager. He’s from Beverly Hills, California, but I think we’re making a little bit of a country boy out of him.
Me and Eddy Arnold posed with Charley Pride when Charley won the Grammy Award as the best country singer. I think Charley has been one of the best things to happen to country music, to prove it belongs to everybody. He knows that I’m his biggest fan.
This was my birthday present on April 14, 1973. They marched me into this office—and there was my biggest hero, Gregory Peck. He gave me a big hug when I met him, but mostly I just sat and stared at him, while him and Doolittle talked like old friends.
Hope Powell
Me and my partner, Conway Twitty, cleaned up at the 1972 Country Music Association Awards. We won the Vocal Duo of the Year, and I got the Female Vocalist of the Year Award. Then I was the first woman ever named Entertainer of the Year.
Of all the television shows I’ve been on, Dinah Shore’s is where I feel most comfortable. We talk so easy together, and she gives me good advice about show business. I just hope she don’t mind when I mess up her kitchen like I do.
Doolittle is real close to the twins, Patsy and Peggy. This was taken when they were around five years old. It makes them mad if I make a mistake over which is which. But Doolittle can always tell them apart, because he’s taken care of them while I was working on the road.
When I visited the Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, I was all ready to take about a dozen of those children home with me. I’m proud of being part Cherokee, and I think it’s time all us Indians felt the same way.
The only thing missing in this picture from Hurricane Mills is a couple of fans tiptoeing up the front lawn. Usually, there’s some stranger asking for an autograph or taking pictures. Now that we opened the dude ranch down the road, we’ve had to post a security man, because the crowds got so big.
We’re just a couple