LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Country-music legend Loretta Lynn is three years older than she has led people to believe, an age change that undermines the story she told of being married at 13 in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Lynn’s birth certificate on file at the state Office of Vital Statistics in Frankfort, Ky., shows that Loretta Webb was born April 14, 1932, in Johnson County, Ky. That makes her 80 years old, not 77.
Also on file are her marriage license and two affidavits from her mother, Clara Marie Ramey, and S.W. Ward Jr., who was not related to the family, listing the same birth date.
Melvin Webb lists his daughter Loretta as 7 years old for the 1940 census, according to a digital copy on file at the Kentucky Historical Society. Lynn’s marriage license, obtained from the Johnson County clerk’s office, lists her as 15 on Jan. 10, 1948.
In “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the autobiography that became an Academy Award-winning film, Lynn told a different story — that she was married at 13 and was a mother of four by 18.
Lynn’s spokeswoman, Nancy Russell of Nashville, Tenn., declined to comment.
