Here's How Country Star Loretta Lynn Made Her Fortune

During her lifetime, Loretta Lynn amassed a net worth of $65 million, as estimated by Celebrity Net Worth. Lynn, also known as the Honky Tonk Girl, the Coal Miner's Daughter, and, maybe most fittingly, the Queen of Country Music, was born on April 14, 1932, and died on October 4, 2022. She came from humble beginnings –  having grown up in a poor mining town and having four children by the age of 20 — but her circumstances didn't impede her dreams. Instead, she went on to become one of country music's most iconic singers.

As Loretta Lynn herself once said, "You either have to be first, great, or different" — and it's safe to say the country music star was all three (via NPR). She was one of the first female country singers to write songs about real issues women face, and she was great in her talent and ability, and she was undoubtedly different from the country singers that came before her. And although she didn't call herself a feminist, per NPR, we would be remiss not to mention how her outspoken authenticity made her an icon for working-class women all over the world.

Her unflinching honesty, humor, and willingness to push boundaries set the tone for many female musicians to come. Her successful career spanned over six decades and earned her three Grammys as well as a spot in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Loretta Lynn's husband, Doolittle, bought her a $17 Sears guitar after hearing her sing around the house, and he claimed that Kitty Wells was the only one who could outsing Lynn. Doolittle also encouraged his wife to sing at local venues near their home in Custer, Washington, and set up events for her to perform, helping her eventually form a band.

It's well known that Lynn and her husband had a tumultuous relationship, and her songs hint at alcoholism and infidelity on her husband's part. Lynn told Rolling Stone (via The Washington Post) that when he hit her, she hit him back twice. Despite these concerning relationship dynamics, Lynn consistently credited her husband (who died in 1996 after 48 years of marriage) for his constant encouragement.

In her book, "Still Woman Enough," she wrote of her husband, "He thought I was something special, more special than anyone else in the world, and never let me forget it. That belief would be hard to shove out the door. Doo was my security, my safety net" (via The Washington Post). In the book "Coal Miner's Daughter," she revealed, "If it wasn't for Doolittle, there would be no career. I wouldn't have started singing in the first place, and I wouldn't have had the inspiration for some of my best songs, in the second place" (via People).

After the success of "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," Loretta Lynn moved to Nashville with her family and continued making music. Per All Music, she switched music studios after moving, signing with Decca, and it was with this label that she released her first album, "Loretta Lynn Sings" in 1963. At this point, her career was beginning to pick up. "Loretta Lynn Sings" ultimately ended up as the No. 2 album on the country charts.

Her success continued to build and, in 1966, "Dear Uncle Sam," a song about a woman whose husband is called to war, was Lynn's first self-written song to become a top 10 hit. Though she was well known by this point, her most popular songs weren't her self-penned ones. However, it was important to Lynn to be known as a songwriter. In an interview with American Songwriter, she said she'd rather be remembered as a songwriter than a singer. "Way before I started singing, I was trying to write," she said. "I lived out in the state of Washington and I had my four babies out there. I was trying to write everyday and I didn't know how. So I looked at the songbooks and thought that anyone could do that, so I just started writing," she explained. The fact that so many of her most successful songs were ones that she wrote herself is a testament to her songwriting ability.

It's impossible to talk about Loretta Lynn's success without mentioning her most popular song, "Coal Miner's Daughter." In 1970, she released the catchy, autobiographical tune that tells the story of Lynn's life growing up in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. In it, she reminisces on the love she felt from her parents despite their lack of money – "Daddy loved and raised eight kids on a miner's pay/Mommy scrubbed our clothes on a washboard every day."

She told American Songwriter, "Everything that I put in that song was true. I lived all of it. I've lived a lot of stuff that I wrote." The song became a No. 1 Billboard hit, and its legacy has lived on to this day. The Recording Industry Association of America named it one of the top 365 songs of the 20th century, alongside other hits like "Over the Rainbow" and "Stairway to Heaven." Rolling Stone ranked it on their list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."

Loretta Lynn wrote several best-selling books, including an autobiography called "Coal Miner's Daughter," named after her famous song and album. She also wrote "Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dirt," which was about her friendship with fellow country singer Patsy Cline; a 2002 memoir titled "Still Woman Enough," a cookbook called "You're Cookin' It: My Favorite Recipes and Memories," and finally a lyric book called "Honky Tonk Girl: My Life in Lyrics."

"Books are like photographs: They take you away to lands and open senses for you," Lynn told The New York Times. "You go to places you've never been and meet people you may never have known." She also shared that her mom influenced the autobiographical way she wrote her songs. "The biggest influence on my writing has been story songs," she said. "Mommy used to sing those and I thought they were great. The best songs I ever wrote tell a story."

Lynn was an avid reader from the beginning of her career, and this hobby has continued late in her life. "I used to read on the tour bus to keep from missing my family. Now I read at night. I live way out and it gets real quiet," she told The New York Times in 2020.

In addition to being Loretta Lynn's personal home until her death, the Loretta Lynn Ranch, also known as Hurricane Mills, is a major tourist destination right outside Nashville, Tennessee. The 3,500-acre ranch features multiple museums, an amusement park, and RV, cabin, and tent lodging. It remains open to the public.

A unique part of the Loretta Lynn Ranch is that it has its own zip code and post office, so Lynn essentially owned the entire town where she hosted many events like concerts, horseback trail rides, and more. The ranch has also hosted the yearly AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship since 1982, per Country Living. As one could imagine, having her own tourist destination no doubt added to her fortune.

In addition to her ranch, Lynn owned many other properties, including a Nashville mansion that she sold in September 2022. According to Taste of Country, she lived with her family in a suburban ranch-style home in Nashville when she first moved there in 1963, then moved again to a farmhouse in Goodlettsville before settling down on the Hurricane Mills ranch.

In 2000, Loretta Lynn released an album called "Still Country" and another album "Van Lear Rose" (produced by The White Stripes' Jack White) in 2003. "Van Lear Rose" was Lynn's "country-est" album, as she told American Songwriter." She and Jack White worked well together and even sang a duet on the album called "Portland, Oregan." Lynn told American Songwriter, "Anything [White] did I thought was cool."

Jack White felt similarly about Lynn, telling Entertainment Weekly (via Country Thang Daily), "I want as many people as possible on earth to hear her, because she's the greatest female singer-songwriter of the last century." Lynn and Jack went on to win two Grammy Awards for collaboration on "Van Lear Rose," proving that age did not affect Lynn's talent. The success of "Van Lear Rose" also allowed Lynn to tour and perform regularly, which she continued to do up until 2017, per Rolling Stone.