Coal Miner's Daughter (Recitation)

Loretta Lynn really was born a coal miner's daughter on April 14, 1932, and this autobiographical song reflects the hardships of growing up in rural Kentucky, where there was little money but a lot of love. Far from a lament, Lynn wears this song like a badge of honor and sings about how proud she is of her background. It was a change of pace for Lynn, who had gained popularity with tough-talking, assertive country classics like "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin (With Lovin' on Your Mind)" and "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)."

Lynn named her 1976 autobiography after this song. In 1980, it was adapted into the biopic Coal Miner's Daughter, with Sissy Spacek in the lead role. Spacek, who was originally supposed to lip-synch, performed all the songs for the film. Her version of the title track was a country hit at #23, and her portrayal of Lynn earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Working in the coal mines was a perilous job that offered little reward. Even when the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ensured workers a federal minimum wage, 25 cents an hour, it didn't do much for coal workers, who weren't paid by the hour, but by the ton. Lynn's father, Theodore Melvin "Ted" Webb, faced risks of collapses, gas explosions, and gas poisoning and a host of potential illnesses every day, and if he was lucky, he could bring home a few dollars for his trouble. Webb lost his job at the Van Lear Coal Mines when he suffered a stroke when he was already struggling with pneumoconiosis (black lung), a chronic lung disease from regularly breathing in the dust in the mines. He would die of another stroke in 1959 at age 51.