Loretta Lynn’s Father Once Bought Christmas Gifts for 8 Kids With Only 36 Cents
Country music icon Loretta Lynn’s story of rags to riches included childhood Christmas memories from years when her father shopped for the kids with only 36 cents to spend.
Lynn was part of a big family, and most years, their gifts were homemade. But she recalled a childhood Christmas her dad brought something home for everyone and how much she adored the tiny present he got for her.
Loretta Lynn’s father once bought 8 kids’ Christmas gifts with 36 cents
In an interview with Southern Living, Lynn recalled Christmas festivities from her childhood. She was one of eight siblings, and they were a family living in a small cabin on a coal miner’s income. So they didn’t celebrate by giving extravagant gifts, because, as she said, her parents “didn’t have money to buy stuff.”
Most years, Lynn’s mom made handmade gifts like rag dolls for the children, and Lynn recalled making dresses for them out of leaves.
However, the Grammy-winning artist remembered a Christmas when her father went to the store with 36 cents and returned with a present for each child. That meant he went shopping for up to eight kids and came home with something for everyone with less than half a dollar to spend.
As Lynn recalled, her dad brought her a tiny plastic doll, and she said she loved it “like it was [her] own baby.”
Christmas for Loretta Lynn changed later in her life
When Lynn moved out and married her husband Oliver Lynn as a teen, she worked hard to help take care of her growing family. “Before I was singing, I cleaned house; I took in laundry; I picked berries,” she explained (Southern Living). “I worked seven days a week.”
“I was a housewife and mother for 15 years before I was an entertainer. And it wasn’t like being a housewife today. It was doing hand laundry on a board and cooking on an old coal stove. I grew a garden and canned what I grew,” she said, adding, “That’s what’s real. I know how to survive.”
In her final years, Lynn spent most of her time at her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, surrounded by her four surviving children.
Loretta Lynn’s rags to riches story
Born in a small cabin in a mining town, when Lynn died at 90, her net worth allowed her to live a life that was a far cry from her humble beginnings.
She was one of Billboard’s Most Promising Female Country artists in 1960, and she formed a fast friendship with Patsy Cline after moving to Nashville, Tennessee, already a hard-working mother of four.
In 1971, she was the first woman to receive the nomination for entertainer of the year at the Country Music Association Awards, though she lost to Charley Pride. More than a country music star, her best-selling autobiography Coal Miner’s Daughter inspired an Oscar-winning movie.
At age 72, she won two Grammys for her work with Jack White, the best country album for Van Lear Rose, and best country collaboration with vocals for “Portland Oregon.”
