Friday, Aug. 31, 2001 | 4:02 a.m.
What can be said about the Queen of Country Music that has not already been said?
In a distinguished 41-year career, Loretta Lynn has risen from a life of poverty to win almost every major award a singer can win.
The 66-year-old native of Butcher Hollow ("Holler," to her), Ky., is a member of the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Among the more than 70 songs that have assured her a place in country music history are "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man," "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)" and "Fist City."
Lynn has outlived many of her contemporaries and closest friends. She also teamed with some of the legends in country music, including Conway Twitty (who died in 1993) and Ernest Tubb (who died in 1982).
Two of Lynn's closest friends were legends as well Patsy Cline, who died in a plane crash in 1963 at age 30, and Tammy Wynette, who died in 1998.
Lynn was married to O.V. "Mooney" Lynn for 47 years. He died in 1996. But Lynn has smiled through the tears. She will perform Thursday through Saturday at Boulder Station.
Lynn recently spoke to the Sun from her home in Hurricane Mills, Tenn., where this year she opened the Coal Miner's Daughter Museum.
Las Vegas Sun: Have you finished writing the follow-up to your 1976 autobiography, "Coal Miner's Daughter?"
Loretta Lynn: "Still Woman Enough" goes to the publishers (this month). It should have been in there by now, but there were some delays I can't talk about or I might get sued.
Sun: Does the new book pick up from where the last one left off?
LL: Not really. The other one started from the time I was 13 'til I was about 27 and sang my first (recorded) song ("I'm a Honky Tonk Girl"). This one starts with my first memory. I was shocked. If I told you, you'd be shocked.
Sun: So shock me.
LL: My mommy told me about when I was a child I got this mastoid (mastoiditis), or whatever you call it, behind my ear. You can die from it. I got it when I was 11 months old and I had it for four years. I had my head shaved and they drilled a little hole through the (mastoid) bone to drain it and packed the hole full of cotton. Every day Mommy and Daddy walked 24 miles 12 there and 12 back home to take me to the doctor. I couldn't walk 'til I was 4 years old.
Sun: You've had a number of major illnesses in your lifetime. In March you had pneumonia. Are you all right now?
LL: I had bacterial pneumonia. I liked to of died. A friend of mine come over at about 10:30 in the morning to check on me. I guess I called her and told her I was sick, but I don't remember it. I don't even remember going to the hospital or coming back. When I went to bed I wasn't sick, but when I woke up I couldn't move. I was in the hospital for 13 days. I feel good now, but my lung is permanently damaged.
Sun: You recovered enough to attend the opening of the Coal Miner's Daughter Museum in May. What's the museum like?
LL: The museum is in what was an old mill that was built back in the 1800s. It's a historical place. The mill had made flour at one time, then one time it made shirts and clothes. One time it made coffins. The guy who built the house, he (printed) his own money (to pay employees), and they had to spend it on the place. He had 50 tenant houses where the workers had to live.
Sun: You have been associated with some of the best country singers. I'll give you a name, and you give me your thoughts: Conway Twitty.
LL: I'm so hurt by his death. I cannot watch him on TV. I cannot stand to hear him sing. Me and him was in the business together 20 years. Him and my husband was the greatest friends. Everybody wanted to record with me, all these artists would call and ask to record with me, but Conway would say she has a singing partner already. Me and Conway was perfect. We had 12 albums out and a lot of number ones. We won awards every year together. I felt bad that he didn't get an award by himself. I don't belive they did him right. It hurt me. It hurt him.
Sun: Tammy Wynette.
LL: My best girlfriend in Nashville, after Patsy (Cline). Tammy and I were very close. I talked to her the night before she died. She said, "Loretta, I feel so great and I've gained weight." Me and her made big plans that all the older artists would get together and rent a coliseum and put on a show and no would would make more than others. It would all be split even.
Sun: Ernest Tubb.
LL: The last time I think of him is like the first time. When I was a little girl I had this little Philco radio I would go to sleep to listenin' to him and when he would say, "So long darlin.' " I would cry and Mommy would say, "If you cry, I'm going to turn it off," but I'd hide under the covers and cry anyway.
Sun: Patsy Cline.
LL: I never had another friend after she died, 'til Tammy. I'm very careful about my close friends. I know the other singers and I speak to them and I'm friendly and that's that. No one is close like me and Patsy was. They didn't play her records (on the radio) 'til my movie ("Coal Miner's Daughter" 1980) come out. She was not really country, but she could sing country.
Sun: You had a wonderful relationship with your late husband. You spent most of the last five years of his life taking care of him. Tell me about him.
LL: His death was one of the awfulest things I went through in all my life. When they told me he was dying, I begged God not to take him. (Mooney) set his eyes on me a whole hour while I was praying and then when I went to his side I said, "Baby, just go around the corner and wait on me." He had blue eyes. When I said, "You go on around the corner and wait" his blue eyes turned to gray and he died.
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