Saving Stories: Remembering the Queen of Country Music, Loretta Lynn

Published October 6, 2022 at 10:28 AM EDT

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FILE - Country music singer Loretta Lynn points to her Hollywood Walk of Fame star during induction ceremonies in Hollywood, Calif., on Feb. 8, 1978. Lynn, the Kentucky coal miner’s daughter who became a pillar of country music, died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. She was 90. (AP Photo/File)

In this special edition of WUKY's award-winning history program Saving Stories, Doug Boyd from the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares audio from an interview between the Country Music icon and a Kentucky middle school student. It's part of the Nunn Center's Bonnet Productions collection. In 1983, students at Henderson County North Middle School, under the direction of teacher Roy Pullam, began conducting videotaped interviews with prominent people in Kentucky. The Nunn Center is now in possession of all these interviews.

The original purpose of the project was to supplement state history textbooks; it expanded to include interviews with prominent people in Henderson County and to preserve the history of Kentucky and the county. On August 8, 1987 student Anne Locke Chapman interviewed Loretta Lynn. In the 15 minute conversation Lynn gave a brief oral history of her background in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky and her singing career. Lynn discussed her upbringing in Butcher Hollow, and described what life was like for residents. She went on to discuss the experience of doing press for the movie Coal Miner's Daughter, which was based on her life, and the changes shed seen in Butcher Hollow and country music. She mentioned Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs and George Strait who were coming into their own as country artists.