Discovering Loretta Lynn: A Trip to Hurricane Mills

Scott: 00:00:00

Like, no, no joke. He was a cousin of Loretta Lynn's.

Jenn: 00:00:03

Mac Butcher hollers about her roots, how she grew up being a coal miner's daughter. That poverty, what that looked like. She's always going to be the girl who didn't have a pair of shoes.

I'm about fixing to die like I love because that's how I would feel too. Like she writes a song about the pill and she writes about women empowerment and don't come home a drinking with lovin on your mind.

She is still considered the queen of country music. She has not been dethroned.

Scott: 00:00:41

Welcome to Talk with History. I'm your host Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.

Jenn: 00:00:45

Hello.

Scott: 00:00:46

On this podcast, we give you insights to our history Inspired World Travels YouTube channel Journey and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers and the history lovers out there.

Now, Jen, before we get into our main topic, I do want to give one shout out and that is I'm going to give a shout out to one of the biggest history podcasts on the planet right now. And that is history that doesn't Suck. So we actually, I had reached out to the, to the show to see if they'd be interested in Jen going on there.

I'm trying to get Jen onto other other podcasts in front of other podcast audience for a chat with Greg the host to chat about potentially like the Hatfields McCoys because that's a popular topic and Jen knows a lot about that. So they didn't bite on my attempt to get Jen on the show, but they were kind enough to send us a little note with the, with a coin.

So I thought it was pretty cool.

Jenn: 00:01:37

Yeah. So Professor Greg Jackson from History Doesn't Suck sent us this challenge coin. So Scott and I are both military. I'm a veteran, Scott's active duty.

And these challenge coins are usually what they hand out to other military members after you've completed an assignment or you've met somebody of high rank. And he sent us this letter thanking us for our military service.

And it has a Latin term on there, bendi vidi da Vinci, which I came, I saw, I learned, which I thought was pretty cool. And it says, I'd like to tell you a story because that's how he starts out his podcast. So I would like to tell you a story, Professor Jackson.

So if you would ever like to be a guest on our podcast, if we could be a guest on your podcast, we did come see you live in Norfolk and you actually gave us a shout out to the crowd Which I really appreciated, but. And we met you after and we took pictures with you. You were really great and very nice to talk to, but it's a podcast.

I listen to you even now, so thank you for the coin. We really appreciate it.

Scott: 00:02:42

Yeah, pretty cool. In: 1932

She grew up in a small cabin over in Butcher Holler with seven siblings, where her father worked as a coal Miner. At just 15 years old, she married Oliver Doolittle Lynn, who believed in her musical talent so much that he bought her her first guitar for $17.

This coal miner's daughter started singing in local venues, raising her children at the same time. Her unique voice and honest songwriting about real life experiences resonated with audiences.

'm a Honky Tonk girl, came in: 1960

In: 1966

It was Loretta's way to show how far coal miner's daughter had come through determination and raw talent. All right, Jen. So we, during our spring break, went to kind of one of the more interesting tourist attractions of Tennessee.

It's about halfway between Memphis and Nashville. And that was. That was Hurricane Mills. And we had done some Loretta Lynn content before. We'd actually been to Butcher Hauler.

We talked to, like, a cousin of hers, which was really interesting. I will link that, that video because we like. No, no joke. He was a cousin of Loretta Lynn's, and he was super country. Great guy.

Mac, of course, it was Mack. But we went to Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Yeah.

Jenn: 00:04:54

And we made a video from ButcherHauler, and we made a corresponding podcast with that. And if you look up Talk with History, you'll see.

You might see one of our critiques is about that podcast where the person's like, you didn't talk about Loretta Lynn's career. You didn't talk about Loretta Lynn, what she did for country music. You just talked about Butcher Holler.

And this person was, like, very upset that we didn't go into Loretta Lynn's career. So this is the answer to that critique. Okay, we're going to talk more about the star, the country, the queen of country music, the woman who is.

Who Became Loretta Lynn. Butcher Holler is more about Loretta Webb.

It's more about her before she even marries Due and goes off to become the country music star that she eventually will become. This is about her root.

The Butcher Hollers about her roots, how she grew up being a coal miner's daughter, that poverty, what that looked like, and how that kind of eventually formed her whole career. Hurricane Mills. And I actually think I get it wrong when I talk about Butcher Hollow. I think I say Hurricane Hills because it just is rhymy.

But this is Hurricane Mills. Like, she doesn't rename it. She buys the town. And it was named Hurricane Mill. Now, this is already after she has a career.

She's living in Nashville with Due, her husband, and their children. And she's already had all of her children by then. And they go out driving one night to get away from the city. Right.

And if you even been to Nashville, it's not even that big of a city, but if you imagine a girl from Butcher Holler, it's a big city.

Scott: 00:06:42

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:06:43

And so she wants to get away. So they go driving through the hills of Tennessee. Hurricane Mills is about a good hour from Nashville. So they were probably driving for a while.

Scott: 00:06:52

They were going for a while. And it's not like. It's not necessarily one of those places that you can kind of just stumble into.

I mean, they must have just been going out and driving through the hills and. And kind of trying to get lost, right?

Jenn: 00:07:03

Yeah, like, just.

Scott: 00:07:05

Just wanting to get out and just get out of town.

Jenn: 00:07:07

It's off the beaten path.

Scott: 00:07:08

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:07:09

ilt. Right. It's built in the: 1930

And if you think of Tara from Gone with the Wind with the big pillars and the big house, it's a beautiful.

Scott: 00:07:25

It's huge.

Jenn: 00:07:25

It's huge. So she did. They didn't build the house. It was there, and they loved it.

And so they go up and knock on the door, and nobody's there because Hurricane Mills had been deserted for about 20 years. It was at once a town, and it was a grist mill where, you know, they grain flour and stuff, and. And it had a post office and had a general store.

And so it was once a.

A town of people, but it kind of had gone under, and the people had moved away, and the owners had basically had children who inherited it, and they didn't live in the area either.

Scott: 00:08:01

Yeah.

And if you guys want, you know, kind of some of the more details about Hurricane Mills proper, we go into a decent amount of depth in the video, right, Obviously. So I'll link that down below. But yes, when they found it, right, they.

They found this abandoned town of Hurricane Mills because there was a grist mill. It's right on the river. It's a gorgeous spot. Right. If you're going to want to buy a place, like, I can absolutely see why she saw that.

Saw the grist mill and the river right there. Like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. It was. It's a beautiful area.

Jenn: 00:08:30

t says the house was built in: 1876

Scott: 00:08:39

It's. It's almost. It's an almost 100-year-old home by the time she sees it.

Jenn: 00:08:42

By the time she sees it. So they knock on the door, no one's there. They sleep on the porch because they want to buy the house, right? They want. They want the house.

Like we want to live here. This is a great. This will be great place to raise our kids. We want to kind of raise them out of the city. This will be perfect.

And a couple towns over, people hear about squatters sleeping on the porch of the big house.

Scott: 00:09:05

Some local probably saw them and then probably told their neighbor and then eventually made it to the police.

Jenn: 00:09:10

Made it to the police. So the police go about a day later and find them on the porch. And who do they meet but Loretta Lynn, right?

Scott: 00:09:17

Super famous.

Jenn: 00:09:18

Super famous at the time. And she wants to buy the house. Well, they get in touch with the family, the family meets them.

acres in: 1966

People want to critique me for not talking about it.

Scott: 00:09:46

Well, and. And that's what, like, to be fair, right? In the movie, right? Co Miner's daughter, you know, that was the big focus, right?

The biggest big focus was kind of the rise of her career and her relationship with Dew and everything like that.

Jenn: 00:09:58

I want people to know. As of: 2022

She's the only female a CM America country music artist of the decade. And she scored 21 number one hits and 11 number one albums. She. She toured a lot 57 years of touring.

Her tour bus is there at Hurricane Mills too if you want to see it. But I want people to realize Loretta Lynn was not famous early. She became famous after having four of her children already.

So she marries, she meets, she, we talk all about Butcher Holler, her growing up as a coal miner's daughter. She's the second of I think like seven kids. Seven kids. And Crystal Gale is her younger sister.

Another lesser known fact, lesser known fact that people like to argue about online. But she's the second born now. Her mother is married at 17, so Loretta Lynn gets married at 16, not or 15. Not crazy for the time in that area too.

And yeah, so kind of more the norm. And Dew is 21, so that's kind of weird do is. But again not crazy for the time people got married young back then.

she marries due in January of: 1948

She turns 16 in April and, and he, he right away gets a job in the state of Washington, the lumberyard. And they have their first child in, in November. So right away basically. And she's 16 years old when she gives birth to her first child.

Then she'll have another child the next year at 17, she misses a year. She has another child at 19 and then right before she turns 20, she has a fourth child. So she has four children by the time she's 19.

Scott: 00:12:02

So. So you said Washington, like Washington State.

Jenn: 00:12:04

Washington State.

Scott: 00:12:05

So they go all the way to Pacific Northwest.

Jenn: 00:12:07

Pacific Northwest.

Scott: 00:12:08

I did not know that.

Jenn: 00:12:09

And I love Coal Miner's Daughter because it reminds me so much of what that hardship would be like. She's raised, she's a child. She's 19, she might have been 20 raising four kids herself while Dew is working.

And his name is not, it's Oliver Lynn, but she calls him Do. And so she loses the last name Web Lynn, Loretta Lynn. And she's named for Loretta Young, the movie star. That's what her mom names her after.

And he's gone all day working. And I remember an important part of the movie. He comes home and he's like, how was your day?

And she goes, I'm about fixing to die like I love because that's how I would feel too. I did not even have my first child till I was 33. Loretta Lynn has all of her children. Her, she has her last, she has her twins at 32.

I did not even have my first. I was 33. And I remember raising my three and I was fixing to die. Like, it's. It's a lot to raise children when they're that young.

And you imagine he's working all day. They don't really have family support there like they're used to. And she's. She is a substance farmer. She learned that from her family.

So they're growing food to, you know, subsidize their diet and raising children and clothes and all those sort of things. So she does sing to the kids, and do really loves her voice.

And he buys her a guitar as a anniversary present, and she doesn't even know how to play guitar. So she gets kind of upset at first because, why would you buy me a guitar if I don't even know how to play it?

And he goes, because I like the way you sing and you can learn. And I think it kind of gives her something to do and to focus on as she's raising the kids.

And she does teach herself how to play guitar, and she does learn these songs. And if you watch Coal Miner's Daughter, I think it gives a very good representation of their marriage because it is.

Scott: 00:14:10

It's very much a partnership.

Jenn: 00:14:12

It was a partnership. It was abusive, right? He does a. There is, like, verbal abuse. There's physical abuse. The Redolin said, for every time he hit me, I hit him twice.

So she didn't back down. Down from the physical abuse. But it is there. And. But the one thing that I think it depicts well is do believes in her.

And it's due that pushes her to sing first on stage, in public. She doesn't want to do it. He pushes her to do it. She gets great feedback. He's the one who first records an album for her.

Her very first song, Honky Tonk Girl. I'm a Honky ton Girl, is the album. He raises the money and cuts himself.

And she's so nervous about recording it that he makes her turn around and sing to the kids, since she's so used to that.

Scott: 00:14:59

Well, and I love one of the scenes from the movie where she's like. Because they show a lot of this. They do a good job of showing it. And so it's like her kids sitting in the living room.

She's sitting there with a guitar, and she basically tells me this. Now, y' all sit down and be quiet. Listen to me sing. You know, so she's. That's where she practiced. That's where she was comfortable.

Jenn: 00:15:18

It's so great because it shows her the reality of her becoming the star and that she's already immersed in her personal Life. She already has these four children, and the learning to sing and play guitar was her outlet as being a mother, as raising these kids.

And cuts that first album and do. Does kind of what a great supportive husband would do.

He gets a list of all these radio stations, country music radio stations, and he starts sending them a. A cover letter of who she is, a copy of that album and a picture. And a picture they just take in their house and of. Of her.

And Male starts to cross off all these radio stations as he mails them out. So what happens then is her father dies.

He eventually will develop black lung disease, of course, from working in the coal mines and dies relatively young. They go back to the east coast to the funeral. And Dew says, while we're here, we have family who can watch the kids.

Let's drive to these radio stations.

Scott: 00:16:30

So that's. That's how they started doing that and.

Jenn: 00:16:32

See if they can play your record.

Scott: 00:16:33

Cool.

Jenn: 00:16:34

Introduce them. And it's.

It's really a rags to riches story because it is that personal connection when she meets the disc jockeys who haven't even opened her record. But that personality comes out, that real country, you know, rooted personality comes out that is authentic Loretta Lynn.

Scott: 00:16:55

Well, and.

And one of the things that was that we learned when we visited Butcher Haller and we talked to her cousin Mac, one of the questions you asked her was like, oh, was she. Was she a tall person? Because you kind of can't tell when someone's on camera and stuff like that. And he was like, oh, no.

He's like, she might have been five, two with heels on.

And so they, again, I think in the movie, they do a good job of like, here's this, you know, this, this tiny, tiny woman, but with this ton of personality and this big voice, you know, with these. With these lyrics that speak to the everyday person.

Jenn: 00:17:27

Yes. And like larger than life woman, but very small stature.

Scott: 00:17:31

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:17:32

And. And, but, but the big hair and Loretta Lynn also in. There's country music singers that kind of embody that glam. Like, they want to be this glam.

Think of Dolly Parton. That was Loretta Lynn. She wanted to wear these very sequiny dresses. It's very big over the top dresses.

Like, they have some of those at Butcher Holler. They have some of those at the drugstore at Butcher Hauler. And then they have some of those at Hurricane Mills.

So you can see they like this big hair, these big dresses. It was kind of part of that motif of being a country music western singer. And so I love that rag to Riches story.

em. She'll have twin girls in: 1964

She's 32 years old, and that's 12 years after her last child. And that's two years before they get Hurricane Mills.

But during this time, she's making these crazy great songs, and she's writing these great storytelling songs, and she's doing some great collaborations. Conway Twitty. And you'll see those albums and things in her house. And so Co Miner's Daughter is one of those storytelling songs. It really is.

She writes it herself. It's a story of her roots and how she grew up and how she'll always be this girl.

No matter the glamorous girl you see singing on the stage with the beautiful dress and the big hair, she's always going to be the girl who didn't have a pair of shoes.

Scott: 00:19:17

And it's. And it's not surprising that that spoke to so many people, because that's what people hear. Right. When you listen to those songs, you.

You kind of picture yourself in that scene. You picture yourself in that story.

And when you're someone like Loretta Lynn, who's growing up and talking about how she grew up in Butcher Holler and her father made $2.50 for a ton of coal, there's so many people that can identify with that. That. And she was a good singer. She had the talent, and she had this boost kind of from her husband. So it was really just a cool story.

And going to Hurricane Mills, you get to see a lot of that memorabilia. You get to see inside of her house, they have a recreation of the Butcher Holler home. It's really cool.

Jenn: 00:20:06

Yeah. And she joins the Grand Old Opry relatively early.

And I think it was because they just love this authentic country girl coming up with the cowboy hat. And she had the twang and the talk and her storytelling songs. She really just embodied everything the Grand Old Opry was.

And she was a great accompaniment to the men who are already up there singing. So they welcomed her with open arms. Of course, Patsy Cline was a mentor of hers. She sang a Patsy Cline song. Patsy Cline loved it.

Patsy Cline helped her with her career. So did Tammy Wynette. And so you get these.

These early country music women who really lean on each other and support each other, which is really great, too. So. And she's consistent. I will say she's consistent in her career. As she makes these number one hits and these number one albums.

And you can, you know, there are people who love different songs from her, different albums from her, different times from her. And she kind of moves along with the times.

Like she writes a song about the pill and she writes about women empowerment and don't come home a drinking with loving on your mind. Like she talks about things that women have the power in their relationships as well.

with love it on your mind in: 1967

So that's after she buys the house at Hurricane Mills. So if you can imagine Hurricane Mills will become so much a part of her career, then that's where she's coming.

Scott: 00:21:48

Back to after she's touring.

Jenn: 00:21:50

And so she's very open with her fans. She loves her fans. So when people stop by the house, she's very welcoming to people coming in and meeting her.

And so that just became kind of a tradition of Hurricane Mills. So much so that they open the general store and they open. The post office is always there. But they do her story with like the.

They have a recreation of her Van Lear coal mine where her father worked. They eventually would make a recreation of the butcher holler cabin. They put a recording studio there.

So Hurricane Mills really becomes a tourist stop as well. And she's always very welcoming to that.

And I have seen footage of people walking through her house as she's sitting on her couch doing interviews and saying hi to people. And when we did the tour of Hurricane Mills and you can do the. The bottom floor of her main house, she used to do these Crisco commercials.

And it's her actual kitchen is what they use for those Crisco commercials. Orange, burnt orange, Crisco classic.

Scott: 00:22:59

70S, 70s.

Jenn: 00:23:01

And she did it with her daughter. And so they have like a little mannequin of her, which she would have looked like standing in that kitchen.

And they use a lot of the house for the movie Coal miner's Daughter. So I originally. I just watched it again. But. But Tommy Lee Jones, who plays do, will be with the twins in the living room watching tv.

That's the actual living room from the house. So you can see. And they have some of those same costumes, clothing that they wore there. So you can see that as well.

g to die in that house in. In: 1996

And she doesn't want to live in the house anymore. By that time the kids are older and they have moved away. It's a big house. So she builds a house behind the main house. Three bedrooms, three baths.

That's the house that she will actually live in after due passes and uses the main house for interviews, for tours, for people to come to visit. Because they always keep the house open for visitors.

Scott: 00:24:09

Yeah. And even now like when you come in and you do the basic tour and I highly recommend, if you're in the area and you're curious, just go.

I was surprised at how nice it was. It's not like some little rundown thing, it's very well maintained. There's lots of stuff for the kids to do.

Like our boys were out like skipping rocks on the river and like the grist mill with the little waterfall kind of the dam that they built with the waterfall. It's a beautiful spot. Just spend kind of like an afternoon there and you pay for the tour.

And so they'll kind of take you through, let you go through the Butcher Holler Home recreation and then through that bottom floor. And I was even telling Jen it reminded me of my grandparents home because it had like that classic 70s look and feel to it.

That kind of the beginning of like the open kitchen feel era. And there's lots of memorabilia there. So if you're a hardcore Loretta Lynn fan, you can go in there and take a look at that stuff.

She had this whole wall of like these perfumes that she like collected or something like that.

Jenn: 00:25:13

It's like Avon bottles.

Scott: 00:25:14

Yeah. And then they have a bunch of her old like dresses that both that she would perform in. They had portraits of the whole family tree.

They had one gown that I think a fan of hers had made and sent. It was something like that.

Jenn: 00:25:31

So she wore this pink gown and a fan painted her in it.

Scott: 00:25:35

That's right.

Jenn: 00:25:35

And so she put the big painting up in her bedroom.

Scott: 00:25:39

Yeah.

Jenn: 00:25:39

And so somebody had said to me, wow, this, she really loved herself. There's a lot of pictures of her. And I said, well she's putting up a lot of fan art. Like it's fan art all over her house.

ved there until dew passes in: 1996

e autobiography is written in: 1976

So it's not until due past as she moves into the second house that is not allowed to be toured. It's still her children don't live there anymore. But if when they do come and visit, they stay in that house and it's right behind the main house.

So I have some people too who are. I had made a video where I'm like over my shoulder, you see the house where Loretta Lynn lives. And I sentence you eventually pass there.

People get upset because she didn't pass in the main house, she passes in the other house, what is behind the main house. And she passes in 20, 22. So relatively recently, just a couple of years ago.

But what's interesting too is I wanted to visit her grave when I was there. And she's buried on property with her husband and with some of her children that have passed. And it's private.

And I asked the tour guide and no, they won't, they won't even tell you where it's located on the property. From looking at find a grave, you can see pictures and I saw like tree line. So I'm not quite sure where it is on the property.

There are some cemeteries on the property. One for like the family that had owned Hurricane Mills before they bought it.

And then there's a, a main one further down, I think more kind of like the city of Hurricane Mills. You'll see those, those look more public. You'll drive by and you can see those. That's not where she's buried.

It's in a family cemetery that's private and you can't get to. So I actually wanted to leave a flag there and they, they said no.

o go there. But There's a big: 1800

And they have a general store. And there was like a general store with a lot more things in it.

And then the general store where you can buy your ticket for the tours, then you can tour the coal mine. They had a lot of outdoor picnic areas.

Scott: 00:28:11

It was, I was, I was surprised and impressed, you know, at how nice it was. And it's, it's absolutely worth taking the time to drive out there.

Jenn: 00:28:21

It's absolutely worth it. So they claim it's the seventh biggest tourist attraction in Tennessee and it has five. No, 50 RV hookups, 300 campsites and 18 cabins.

Scott: 00:28:35

Yeah, yeah. So you can still go out there and kind of do some summer activities and stuff like that. You had told me, and I confirmed it online.

thing every year since, like,: 1982

Jenn: 00:28:51

Yes. And they have a bunch of that stuff, too, in the gift shops if you want some motocross things. But I guess people come out and do this every.

So when you drive up to it, you'll see huge motocross tracks and bleachers for them. Because think of all the acreage now.

,: 3500

Scott: 00:29:23

And it's. It's quite the setting. Right. I can see why when she got out there, she would have fallen in love with it right away.

Not only because the home is beautiful, but just because of where it's set. And so I encourage folks to. To check out our video because we try to kind of show a little bit of the area. But it's. It's a beautiful spot.

Jenn: 00:29:39

Yeah. And we were. We were pleasantly surprised going there. There's a lot of great picture areas. And if I had people ask me, well, I can't afford it.

You don't have to pay for the tour. Just to visit Hurricane Mills is free. Just to walk around the area is free. To go into the stores is free.

They do charge to see the recreation of Butcher Holler. They do charge to go into the first floor of the house, and they do charge for the museum, but everything else is free.

If you just want to walk around and stop and eat and have a picnic, let the kids run around, that is all free. So we were pleasantly surprised by it. Definitely head out to Hurricane Mills.

I hope I talked more about Loretta Lynn, school career and what she's meant to country music. She is still considered the queen of country music. She has not been dethroned, and she's meant a lot to our channel.

People are very interested in Loretta Lynn. People love Loretta Lynn and we love her too. So thank you.

Scott: 00:30:42

So Loretta and Doolittle transformed Hurricane Mills into what would become one of Tennessee's most unique tourist attractions.

They began hosting concerts on the grounds, drawing country music fans from across the nation who wanted to experience the magic of Loretta's music in her own backyard. What started as informal gatherings evolved into a full fledged dude ranch experience.

The Lens added campgrounds and museums showcasing her career and even replica buildings of her Butcher Holler childhood home and yes, a replica coal mine for the now famous coal miner's daughter. Today, Hurricane Mills remains a thriving tourist destination welcoming over 100,000 visitors annually.

The ranch hosts major events including motorcycle races like we mentioned, concerts and holiday celebrations.

while Loretta passed away in: 2022

Jenn: 00:31:52

By me, Scott Bennett.

Scott: 00:31:53

Episode researched by Jennifer Benny. Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode. Talk with History is supported by our fans at the History Road Trip.

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