Entertainers & Musicians - Women's Biography, Country Music - General & Miscellaneous, Country & Folk Musicians - Biography

Still Woman Enough: A Memoir

Name: Still Woman Enough: A Memoir
Author: Loretta Lynn
ISBN: 9780786866502

by Loretta Lynn, Patsi Bale Cox

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Overview

In this riveting follow-up to her #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, Coal Miner's Daughter, Loretta Lynn continues her captivating story about triumph over the odds.

Loretta Lynn's first memoir, Coal Miner's Daughter, was a #1 national bestseller that sparked an Oscar-winning movie and left fans hungry for more. Now Loretta finishes that story, and the second half of her life is every bit as remarkable and inspiring as the first.

In a friendly, down-home style that belies her stature as country music's most celebrated performer, Loretta writes candidly about the price of fame and the stresses of stardom; tells of friends and family she's loved and lost along the way; and shares secrets not included in her first book. But at the heart of this memoir is her stormy relationship with Doo, the man she married at thirteen and stayed with until he died, through his drinking, their violent arguments, and their passionate reconciliations. Loretta reveals the devotion behind "one of the hardest love stories in the world." Filled with intimate portraits of country legends, and brimming with folksy humor, this personal tale of grit, determination, and loyalty will enthrall Loretta's countless fans and anyone who adores a good old-fashioned love story.

Loretta Lynn, the most celebrated entertainer in the history of country music has a lot to sing about:

--9 gold albums
--A national bestselling book and film, Coal Miner's Daughter
--First female artist to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year
--First country artist to win the prestigious Golden Plate award given to those who excel in all fields of achievement worldwide
--First female recording artist to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame
--Longtime member of the Country Music Hall of Fame
--One of Entertainment Weekly's 100 Entertainers for 1950-2000
--One of Ladies Home Journal's 10 Most Admired Women of the World

Synopsis

"Loretta Lynn was immortalized to millions of Americans through the book and film Coal Miner's Daughter as the future country star who married at thirteen and braved indescribable hardship and poverty. Now, the undisputed queen of country music goes beyond the early years she chronicled in her first memoir to explore the thirty-five subsequent years of her life - the complete tale of a star who was woman enough to rise in triumph. The book's title is taken from Lynn's hit song "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" - and in this riveting account, Loretta proves why she has served as a source of inspiration to countless American women." In Still Woman Enough Loretta writes candidly about the price of fame and the stresses of stardom, telling of friends and family she's loved and lost along the way, all in her signature friendly, down-home style. The backdrop for this inspirational story is the tumultuous life of the most honored woman in the history of country music. Loretta shares secrets that are not in her first book, discussing in much more detail her move from Butcher Holler, Kentucky, to faraway Washington state, where she had her fourth child by age eighteen and where her husband forced her to sing in local taverns. She tells of her own encounters with domestic violence and shares the ordeals that rocked her home - domestic explosions that often occurred before her terrified children. Loretta, now a grandmother, chronicles the passionate, often volatile, but always enduring forty-eight-year relationship with her hard-drinking husband, Mooney - "one of the hardest love stories in the world."

Wall Street Journal

Ms. Lynn knows how to tell a story on herself.

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Editorials

From Barnes & Noble

Loretta Lynn has nine gold albums and is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, but many readers know her best through her memoir Coal Miner’s Daughter, a 1976 No. 1 bestseller that became an Oscar-winning movie. Borrowing its title from her signature 1964 song, this memoir brings Lynn’s rocky story up to date, recounting her till-death-do-us-part relationship with Doo, the man she married at 13 and remained with until his anguishing demise by alcohol. The gritty existence of the girl from Butcher’s Hollow (she was a grandmother before her 30th birthday!) is balanced by healthy doses of Kentucky folk humor and a deep love of the music that made her famous.

Wall Street Journal

Ms. Lynn knows how to tell a story on herself.

Booklist

Lynn's sincerity-drenched testimony will be pure pleasure for country fans.

Publishers Weekly

When asked to write her first memoir, Lynn was in her early 30s: "I hadn't never done nothing with my life except sing and have babies, and I didn't think I had a life to talk about." But Coal Miner's Daughter, the story of the dirt-poor Kentucky girl who married at 14, had four of her six children before she was 21 and went on to become one of country music's most successful recording artists, captured the American imagination. In this follow-up, Lynn mostly focuses on her marriage and the trials and pleasures of Nashville stardom, including fond recollections of friends like Conway Twitty and Tammy Wynnette. Lynn admits that the passing of her husband, Doo drunk, abusive, womanizing and yet her most loyal, trusted companion in 1996, freed her to write more openly. There are no stunning revelations here, rather a series of small, genuine ones about family and career. Though her grammar may make purists flinch ("I thought me and Doo was no longer husband and wife just because he throwed me out"), Lynn's literary voice is as natural and endearing as her songs. Many tales have a conspiratorial tone, and Lynn is quite willing to incriminate herself ("I ain't proud of that story or this next one, but this one has such a good ending I got to tell it anyway"). Honest and always entertaining, Lynn's memoir should delight country music fans and perhaps win her some new ones. (Apr.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In her best-selling Coal Miner's Daughter, Lynn allowed us to watch her grow from a na ve mountain girl in Butcher Holler, KY, into a country superstar. Husband Doolittle "Doo" Lynn played a major role in that earlier memoir, and it was his death in August 1996, as well as the passing of several close friends, that made her realize that her life story deserved a sequel. Here, the Country Music Hall of Fame member sets us down on the porch and talks more about Doo (his alcoholism and womanizing in particular), her own struggles with bacterial pneumonia and other health conditions, and the deaths of her mother, siblings, and son, Jack Benny. With her homespun, folksy voice, Lynn also reminisces about many of her friends Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, Patsy Cline, Cal Smith, Ernest Tubb, Faron Young, Conway Twitty, and Tammy Wynette and thanks the Wilburn Brothers for taking her under their wing and helping launch her career. Humorous and honest, Lynn gives us that rare opportunity to know what kind of strength it takes to stand by one's man (in spite of Doo's boozing and cheating, she loves him to this day) and make it through the night. Recommended for all libraries. Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Lancaster, PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The nation's best-known coal miner's daughter delivers a long-awaited sequel to her bestselling . . . Coal Miner's Daughter (1976). Loretta Lynn's life has always made good reading. Born dirt-poor, she was married at 14 and a grandmother at age 29. She was also the first woman to be named the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year (in 1972), and she rattled the genre's limits with daring lyrics in songs such as "The Pill." Here, she fills out the story of her later life, describing her children, her friendships and partnerships, the death of her son, and bits of history that weren't included in her first autobiography. The singer has always given credit for her career to her husband, Oliver Venetta "DooLittle" Lynn, but now she lifts the veil to chronicle their extremely rocky union. Lynn is not known for holding her tongue, and most fans already know Doo "sure wasn't no perfect man." Now, though, she is more specific than ever before. Her children's fears that their father will be portrayed unsympathetically are well founded; he's seen warts and all, womanizing and drinking his way through almost 50 years of partnership, skipping award shows, and throwing crockery. Loretta is no shrinking violet, however, and her tone is less one of condemnation than a mixture of sadness, pride, and love for the man who saw her talent and forced her to become a singer over her own objections. Along the way are numerous stories of close friends such as Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, and Conway Twitty; reminiscences about key managers and collaborators; and reiterations of her staunch support for both Presidents Bush. Veteran country-music autobiography coauthor Cox (Tanya Tucker's Nickel Dreams,1997, etc.) catches it all on paper in a modified Kentucky vernacular complete with dialect-true "cain't"s and double negatives; the narration is warm and authentic. Somewhat slapdash, but highly satisfying for fans and completists.