Skip to main content

Country music

Fifty years ago this month, Loretta Lynn released a song inspired by her childhood in Butcher Holler, Kentucky. Now she is the undisputed “Queen of Country Music."

Editor's Note: Holley Snaith is a historical researcher who has worked at the Nixon Foundation and Eleanor Roosevelt Center. Photos courtesy of Loretta Lynn Enterprises unless otherwise noted.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate