The date listed on the 'Coal Miner's Daughter' singer's recently uncovered records squashes her previous claim that she got married to Doolittle Lynn at the age of 13.
- May 19, 2012
AceShowbiz -
Country music legend Loretta Lynn has apparently lied about her age. The Associated Press uncovered that the "You Ain't Woman Enough" hitmaker was actually three years older than what she's been telling others after getting its hands on her birth certificate that is on file at the state Office of Vital Statistics in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Per her birth certificate, Lynn was born on April 14, 1932 in Johnson County, Kentucky, making her 80 years old. The same birthdate was also listed on her marriage license and two affidavits from her mother, Clara Marie Ramey, and S.W. Ward Jr., who was not related to the family, that were filed in 1965.
The new revelations trashed claims in her autobiography, "Coal Miner's Daughter", that she got married at 13, moved to Washington State at 16, and was a mother of four by 18. According to the documents, she actually exchanged wedding vows with Doolittle Lynn when she was three months shy of her 16th birthday.
Lynn's spokeswoman, Nancy Russell of Nashville, Tennessee, declined comment on the discrepancy when contacted, the AP reported. She did say, however, that the Grammy winner has told her before in no uncertain terms, "If anyone asks how old I am, tell them it's none of their business!"
Lynn herself alluded to giving her actual age in her 2001 memoir. "When I was born, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the president for several years. That's the closest I'm gonna come to telling my age in this book, so don't go looking for it," she wrote. "I'm trying to make a living singing songs. I don't need nobody out there saying, 'She don't look bad considering she's such-and-such years old.' "
