In February of 1960, Loretta Lynn was a mother of four children who had just cut her first single for a small label called Zero Records. Distribution and promotion by the label was virtually non-existent so Loretta and her then-husband, Doolittle, mailed out thousands of copies of the 45 to radio stations across the US. Not one of them responded, so Loretta and Doolittle hopped into their car and hit the road, visiting those radio stations one by one. By the time she and Doolittle arrived in Nashville in the summer of that year, Loretta Lynn’s first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” was a hit on the Country chart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgE-gwZDbb0

Over the course of a six decade career, Loretta has scored 24 number one Country music hit singles and 11 number one albums. She has earned three Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. After her autobiography, Coal Miner’s Daughter, was made into a film starring Sissy Spacek in 1980, Loretta became became the first female country music artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

WUMB will share songs from Loretta Lynn’s career on her 90th birthday, Thursday, April 14th.

Hear the Artist of the Day sets in the 9 AM, noon, 3 PM, and 7 PM hours each weekday.