Country music queen Loretta Lynn has suffered a stroke. The 85-year-old singer was rushed to a Nashville hospital from her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee, on Thursday.
Lynn’s website said she is “currently under medical care and is responsive and expected to make a full recovery. She has been advised by her doctors to stay off the road while she is recuperating,” the statement added. “Regrettably, upcoming scheduled shows will be postponed.”
She was in the middle of a tour and was scheduled to be in South Carolina on Saturday, an appearance that has been canceled. She appeared last month on CBS (in the video above) to perform a duet with country singer Nikki Lane.
Lynn celebrated her 85th birthday last month with a two-night knockout concert at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and was joined by sisters Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue Wright, and daughter Patsy Lynn. She belted out hits including “You’re Lookin’ at Country” and “I Wanna Be Free.” She boasted that she could “work” any 26-year-old girl “under the table any time,” Rolling Stone reported.
Lynn’s next album, “Wouldn’t It Be Great,” is scheduled to be released in August.
Twitter reacted with an outpouring of concern and best wishes for the Kentucky girl with an unforgettable voice and moving lyrics who won America’s heart with hits like “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
She wrote of her life growing up poor in Appalachia and raising six children (she’s now the grandmother of 21) as she became a star in her 1976 autobiography, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which became a hit movie starring Sissy Spacek.
Lynn has been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards and has won four. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2013.
Fans, musicians and even the Grand Ole Opry sent out love and hope for a speedy recovery to the legendary singer.
Last year Lynn announced that she had to cancel her annual Labor Day concert at her ranch after a fall that required surgery.