Loretta Lynn Spoke on the Afterlife Before Her Death: ‘I’m Gonna Stick With God’

Country singer Loretta Lynn was known for her legacy in music, and she credits her success to her husband, Oliver Lynn, for pushing her in that direction. Sadly, Loretta died on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Before her death, she spoke about the afterlife and what she believes comes next. Here’s what she said.

Loretta Lynn spoke about the afterlife after the death of her husband, Oliver Lynn

Loretta Lynn and her husband, Oliver Lynn, had a tumultuous relationship. The couple married extremely young — Loretta claims she was only 13 at the time, while Oliver was 21. Oliver gave Loretta her first guitar as a teenager, and she found great success afterward. Together, they had six children, though their marriage was anything but peaceful. Oliver often drank too much, cheated on Loretta, and sometimes got abusive.

Despite Loretta’s difficult relationship with her husband, she spoke kindly of him after his death. “I miss him so much,” she shared, according to WBUR. “He kind of kept things going, like me recording. He’d always tell me how good I was, and that always helped a lot. He would say, ‘You know, we need to get a new record out,’ or whatever. He always kept me moving. And if it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have been singing, period.”

Loretta also touched on her thoughts on the afterlife after her husband’s death. “Everybody probably goes to the same place,” she told Time Out. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen, I don’t think anybody really knows for a fact. Not long ago wasn’t it this preacher said it was gonna be the end of time? I think the end of time is gonna be the day you die. I don’t want to do some wrong that I might accidentally go to the other place, so I’m gonna stick with God. [Laughs] If there’s a God, I’m stickin’ with Him!”

What happened to Loretta Lynn’s husband?

So, what happened to Loretta Lynn’s husband, Oliver Lynn? According to Biography, Oliver had heart surgery in 1992, and he later lost both of his legs due to complications from diabetes. Four years after his heart surgery, Oliver died at the age of 69.

The loss was incredibly difficult for Loretta to manage. “I just got numb,” she said, according to Nashville Scene. “Three days after my husband died, I left Hurricane Mills and came to Nashville. After bein’ here awhile, I said to a friend of mine, ‘It seems like I been here a couple months already.’ And she said, ‘You been here a year.’ That’s when I knew I’d flipped out.”

Two of her children also died before she did

Loretta Lynn and her husband lost two of her six children before her death in 2022. Her oldest child, Betty Sue Lynn, died of emphysema in 2013. And when Loretta’s son, Jack Benny Lynn, died at 34 years old in 1984, the grief-stricken mother had an incredibly difficult time recovering from the loss. According to People, Jack drowned while riding on his horse through the family ranch, Hurricane Mills.

“They were very close,” Loretta’s other daughter, Patsy, explained. “It was probably because he took after my dad.”

“Mother’s strength will pull her through,” Betty said at the time. “She’s been sick and she works too hard, but Mother’s going to be fine. All of us kids have hung on to each other all these years and it won’t be the same without Jack. But Jack went out in a blaze of glory. He just went off ridin.’”

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