Loretta Lynn Dead at 90: Country Legend 'Passes Peacefully in Her Sleep' Family Says

Loretta Lynn, a dirt-poor Kentucky coal miner's daughter who rose to the greatest heights of international stardom, died Tuesday morning at her home in Tennessee. She was 90.

"Our precious mom, Loretta Lynn, passed away peacefully this morning, Oct. 4, in her sleep at home in her beloved ranch in Hurricane Mills," her family said in a statement.

Daughter Patsy Lynn Russell wrote, "My beautiful mother joined my father today ❤️" with a photo of her parents, while sister Crystal Gayle added, "The world lost a legend. We lost a sister. Love you Loretta❤️🌺"

In April, the country legend celebrated her 90th birthday with well-wishes from musicians all over the world.

"To us, you're always timeless and ageless and always will be," Tim McGraw said at the time.

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Married at 15 to a moonshine runner six years her senior, Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn, Loretta was a mother of four by the time she turned 20. She started writing songs on a $17 guitar her husband bought her and singing in honkytonks to make extra money.

In 1960, she signed her first record deal and released her first single, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl." A string of Top 10 hits followed: "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)," "Fist City." Many were inspired by her own marital woes.

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"I went through a lot and I put up with a lot," Lynn — who joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1962 — told PEOPLE in 2010. "Every song I wrote came from my heart."

In 1972, Lynn became the Country Music Association's first female entertainer of the year, and in 2003, when she received the Kennedy Center Honor, President George H.W. Bush called her "a national treasure."

Lynn's bestselling 1976 autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter revealed her impoverished childhood in Butcher Hollow in painful detail. It also served as the basis of the 1980 box-office hit that won a Best Actress Oscar for its leading lady (who was Lynn's personal choice for the role), Sissy Spacek.

"Today is a sad day. The world lost a magnificent human being. Loretta Lynn was a great artist, a strong and resilient country music pioneer and a precious friend," Spacek told PEOPLE in a statement. "I am heartbroken. I send my deepest sympathies to her wonderful family, her friends, and her loyal fans."

Lynn remained an icon to her fans, peers and much younger artists, among them Jack White, who produced 2004's Van Lear Rose and considered Lynn "an absolute genius. She was the greatest female singer-songwriter of the 20th century." The album revived her career with glowing reviews and two Grammys.

Lynn and "Doo" were married from 1948 until his death in 1996. They had six children, the eldest of whom, son Jack, died in a drowning accident in 1984. In 2013, daughter Betty Sue died of complications from emphysema. Of Lynn's seven siblings, the most famous is singer Crystal Gayle. Besides those survivors, Lynn also had several grandchildren.

Assessing what her legacy might be, Lynn told PEOPLE in 2010: "I really don't know that I've made a mark. I hope I have. And I hope I'm thought well of, that I never hurt nobody."

Lynn was hospitalized in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2017 after suffering a stroke at her Hurricane Mills home. The country singer was also hospitalized several times in her life for exhaustion and pneumonia — all the while continuing to tour concert halls and greet visitors to her ranch.

While Lynn was still not well enough to attend the preview party to celebrate her new exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville that August, she instead sent her daughter, Patsy Lynn Russell, off with what she called "a piece of me" – the two wedding bands given to her by her late husband.

"It took her so long to get one, I think he felt she deserved two," Russell said as she fingered the two identical bands, each studded with a row of small diamonds. "She took them off her finger and gave them to me today … It's kind of like she gets to go through [the exhibit] with me."

Though Lynn was singing around the home again and back in conversation with her Sony label to release her new album after it was postponed because of the stroke, Russell said her mother's main challenge was regaining her balance. But her progress within the span of six weeks left her family optimistic about her speedy road to recovery.

"The difference between then and now is night and day," said Lynn's grandson, Anthony Brutto, who summoned the ambulance for his grandmother after the stroke. "It's amazing to see the will and fire she has inside … Nothing can get her down, and nothing will get her down. … She's still witty. She's still very sharp. She's still very funny. When I went over there last week she said she's writing songs and playing the guitar, so it's really awesome to get to see that."

Lynn did everything it takes to get herself back on her feet for the ones she loves most. Her not-to-be-missed attendance at Alan Jackson's Country Music Hall of Fame induction that marked her first public appearance in Nashville since her health crisis.

"This is the first time I've been out of the house, Alan," Lynn said after being greeted with a raucous standing ovation by the 800 invited guests. "You're the only thing that've brought me here."

Lynn had been making great strides in her recovery until she suffered a broken hip after a fall at her home on Jan. 1, 2018.

"She had an accident on New Year's Day and fractured her hip," Russell told PEOPLE exclusively about her mother's condition at the time. "At my mom's age it's so dangerous when it comes to the hip, so we're all just grateful she seems to be OK. She's up putting weight on it and starting her rehab now."

And it may have been caused by playing with her furry new friend.

"She has a new puppy — we don't really know if she was chasing after the puppy or what, but she slid and fractured her hip. We blame the puppy!" said Patsy with a laugh. "Though the puppy brings smiles so there's that."

In September 2018, Lynn opened up to PEOPLE about her health — and assured that no stroke was going to get her down: "I wasn't goin' to let it stop me. You just can't sit down and say 'Hey, take me.'"

Later that week, she released Wouldn't It Be Great, an album of original songs along with a few remakes of old favorites like "Coal Miner's Daughter", which she had postponed due to her stroke.

"It's a very scary thing when you find out you're havin' a stroke," Lynn said at the time. Immediately, I wondered if I could sing. Mommy said I was born singin'. That's all I've ever done. I couldn't believe that that could be taken away."

Later, in June 2017, Lynn responded to a tabloid report that insinuated she was on her deathbed in a video on her Facebook page. "Hey, this says I'm in a nursing home and I'm on my deathbed. You're kidding me! I'm not dead and neither is Willie! Both of us are coming back to life and we're gonna raise hell," she said, referencing fellow singer Willie Nelson, who refuted similar rumors in the past.

In a 2019 Lifetime biopic titled Patsy & Loretta, fans followed the true story of Patsy Cline and Lynn — and how they helped each other make their mark in the industry.

The four-time Grammy winner released Still Woman Enough, her 50th studio album, in March 2021 and it served as a celebration of women in country music. The album featured Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, Tanya Tucker, Margo Price and more.

Whatever she endured at home, fans and fellow artists showered her with love. "She was beautiful and feisty and had this spirit that made you want to be better," Miranda Lambert, who spent time with Lynn, told PEOPLE. "She was one of the most genuine artists there is."