Loretta Lynn

Born during the Depression to a Kentucky coal miner and his wife. Given a $17 guitar by husband Doolittle when she was 18 and taught herself to play, but didn't consider music as a career until years later. Signed to Zero Records in 1960 after its Canadian owner spotted her on a Buck Owens-hosted TV talent show in Tacoma, WA. Her first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," became a Top 20 country hit in 1960. Two years later, after signing with Decca, she scored her first Top 10 hit with "Success." Has achieved 27 No. 1 country hits and more than 50 Top 10 country hits during her career. Among her best-known numbers: "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)" (1966); "Fist City" (1968), "Woman of the World (Leave My World Alone)" (1969) and "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1970). Named the CMA's Female Vocalist of the Year in 1967, 1972 and 1973; and was the first female Entertainer of the Year in 1972. Often dueted with Conway Twitty during the 1970s and early '80s. They scored five No. 1 country hits between 1971 and '75 and an additional seven Top 10 hits from 1976 to '81. Her 1975 song "The Pill," about the birth-control pill, was controversial in its day: The record company delayed releasing it for several years and, once it was put out as a single, many country radio stations refused to play it. Titled her 1976 autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter after her 1970 hit autobiographical song. The book led to the classic 1980 movie of the same name, which earned Sissy Spacek the Best Actress Oscar. Chose Sissy Spacek to play her in the movie from a photograph; she hadn't seen any of Spacek's films. Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988; the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983; and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.