Loretta Lynn; image courtesy of likeawhisper.wordpress.com
I know we’re all still mourning the recent loss of Dixie Carter, whose inimitable Julia Sugarbaker was an early feminist role model on this Southern girl. But let’s not forget that today is another Southern dame’s birthday. Loretta Lynn is 76, and I’m very grateful. Though not without its problems, I remain a fan of Coal Miner’s Daughter and Sissy Spacek’s Oscar-winning turn as Lynn.
Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn; image courtesy of wikimedia.org
I love that voice and I’ve always appreciated that she — like Dolly Parton — celebrated her humble roots.
Of course, their folksiness feeds into how country music constructs itself to be music for the people. Thus, I’ve always treasured Lynn’s political contributions to popular music. This woman recorded “The Pill,” one of the first popular songs about birth control, back in 1972 before its 1975 release. While it initially received controversy for seemingly contradicting country music’s values, it was embraced by the mainstream and remains a standard. In 1966, she also recorded “Dear Uncle Sam,” a protest song about the Vietnam War sung from the perspective of a soldier’s wife, which she has since performed in response to the Iraq War. She also continues to work with younger artists, most notably White Stripes’ frontman Jack White on 2004′s Van Lear Rose.
And I’ve always appreciated how Lynn could respect other people’s perspectives while holding true to her own. Note the grace with which she brokered peace between Darlene Connor’s vegetarianism and her mother’s entrepreneurial spirit in the Amy Sherman-Palladino penned “Lanford Daze” episode of Roseanne when the Lunch Box tabled at a local food fair. Lynn even got a loose meat sandwich out of it. While I don’t like the female competition in “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man),” I do love that Roseanne and Lynn sing it together. Play us off!
