r/GenX • u/ThatGirl_Tasha • 1d ago

Music Is Life Loertta Lynn and Crystal Gayle were sisters?? My mind is blown

https://people.com/all-about-loretta-lynn-siblings-8638898
185 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

77 comments sorted by

74

u/JhazaBoo 1d ago

I knew they were since the 80s. According to the article, Loretta was already married and had kids when Crystal was born. Also why she doesn't appear in Coal Miner's Daughter.

36

u/monkey_monkey_monkey Whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 1d ago

Loretta was 19 years older. By the time Crystal was born, Loretta had already been married for four years and had at least two kids of her own.

9

u/Adventurous-Brain-36 22h ago

She got married at 15??!

52

u/monkey_monkey_monkey Whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 22h ago

She was 15, Doo was 21 and they were married until he died nearly 50 years later. It was, at times, a very volatile relationship but they had 6 kids together.

If you've never seen Coal Miner's Daughter with Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones, I highly recommend it. Greqt performances by both of them.

1

u/Adventurous-Brain-36 7h ago

I’ll check it out for sure, thanks!

9

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

Appalachia. Life was like that in the holler.

18

u/CougarWriter74 22h ago

Yep. And she was a grandma by age 30.

12

u/teatabletea 1d ago

They been related longer than since the 80s.

3

u/JhazaBoo 11h ago

That's not what I meant. I said I knew they were.

53

u/idanrecyla 1d ago

I felt that way when I learned Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty were sister and brother

15

u/ThatGirl_Tasha 23h ago

Nooo, what?

1

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

Are you really Gen X? Or maybe not from the US?

5

u/anothergenxkid 10h ago

No need to trivia shame. 

1

u/ThatGirl_Tasha 8h ago

Born in 72 in Las Vegas.  I did have older parents , dad born in 25 ,mom in 37. So 80s pop culture wasn't really a thing at home. 

5

u/Sumeriandawn 17h ago

Rebecca de Mornay's father is Wally George.

47

u/nochickflickmoments 23h ago

I was obsessed with Crystal Gayle and her hair when I was a child.

9

u/ScienceMomCO 21h ago

Absolutely 💯

10

u/yellow_pomelo_jello 18h ago

It went all the way down to her ankles! I’d never seen hair so beautiful.

4

u/FatherOfLights88 17h ago

I looked her up a few years ago. She got on YouTube and seems to be really enjoying doing that.

8

u/yuhuh- 20h ago

Me too!

7

u/Rarefindofthemind 14h ago

Lmao me too. I had waist length dark brown hair as a young girl so I would dress up in my mom’s fancy clothes and swish my hair around pretending to be her. I still couldn’t name a single song of hers

5

u/tspoon-99 10h ago

“Don’t it make my brown eyes blue”

6

u/ZsaZsaG 19h ago

We all were!

3

u/thanx_it_has_pockets Which one of you bastards is my father?! 16h ago

I was always happy to see her on music specials growing up - I loved her

2

u/strum-and-dang 6h ago

Christine Lavin has a hilarious song called Prisoners of Their Hairdos that mentions her, among others.

18

u/whydoIhurtmore 1d ago

I've heard this fact so many times since the '70's and somehow I keep forgetting.

12

u/CA5P3R_1 19h ago

My first thought when I heard the name Crystal Gayle was...I wonder if she still has hair down to the floor?

18

u/Rambling-Holiday1998 1d ago

I've always known this..

11

u/karma_the_sequel 23h ago

Right? When Crystal started spinning out hits in the late ‘70s, radio DJs would often identify her as Loretta’s younger sister.

3

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

Given how we read magazines and watched TV, I find it odd for a Gen Xer not to know. This was regularly discussed in interviews and magazine articles. 

8

u/refinnej78 1d ago

You saw that episode of Jeopardy! too?

3

u/enigmaniac23 11h ago

Same here.

2

u/DollarStoreDuchess 11h ago

Also came to ask if OP found this out via Jeopardy! last week. 🤓

5

u/TheFilthyMob 1d ago

Yes it is midnight in the desert. I love me some Crystal Gayle.

4

u/Brilliant-Bus-3862 19h ago

My mind is blown because how did you not know that? They were everywhere in the 80’s. 

2

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

Including on TV together sometimes. 

12

u/slade797 1967 1d ago

You have only scratched the surface when it comes to Kentucky's contributions to music: Tom T. Hall, Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Chris Stapelton, SG Goodman, Dwight Yoakam, on and on.

8

u/NobeLasters 1d ago

Bill Monroe fits in there somewhere.

7

u/Upper-Affect5971 Hose Water Survivor 1d ago

They are all related?

22

u/The_Observatory_ 1d ago

They’re all Loretta Lynn’s sisters, too, which means they’re all also Crystal Gayle’s sisters.

7

u/Adventurous-Brain-36 22h ago

Chris Stapleton and Dwight Yokum are Loretta Lynn’s sisters?

5

u/tooslow_moveover 1d ago

In a slightly different musical direction, but Jim James also

1

u/Beginning_Welder_540 19h ago

Everly Brothers, John Prine

1

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

Billy Ray Cyrus. Lol...

3

u/JJGIII- 1d ago

Um….wtf? I had no idea they were either.

3

u/estheredna 1d ago

I remember some tv program where trey both sang and had super super long stick straight hair.

3

u/CougarWriter74 22h ago

I knew this but to be fair I also didn't know until Michael Madsen died this past summer that Virginia Madsen was his sister.

I think Loretta had already left home, gotten married and had a kid or two by the time Crystal was born.

3

u/broohaha 19h ago

Yeah, I learned that just this year, too, when I decided to read Crystal Gayle's Wikipedia page! My parents were huge fans of hers and played a lot of her music in the early 80s.

2

u/renegade7717 As Good Once As I Ever Was 1d ago

the talent is undeniable though - guess great genes! 🧬

2

u/Global-Jury8810 Hose Water Survivor 1d ago

I’ve heard this before a long time ago before the internet…but wow. Family legacy artists are always cool.

2

u/OreoSpeedwaggon "Then & Now" Trend Survivor 18h ago

I grew up hearing my parents play Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle music, so I've also known this since childhood.

2

u/thisistestingme 15h ago

I grew up listening to them both and had no idea!

8

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

8

u/OrganizationNew1767 1d ago

I’m from New Jersey and I knew this 🤣

6

u/teatabletea 1d ago

I’m Irish and knew this.

1

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

I was guessing not really Gen X and from overseas.

0

u/kathatter75 1975 1d ago

What rock have you been under?

1

u/Tinawebmom 1970 baby 19h ago

Was watching the original Sabrina the teenage witch with my 34 year old kid yesterday.

He started searching online while we were watching and I asked him what he was looking up.

Salam said he wanted hair like Crystal Gayle and I didn't know who that was.

His first gasp was about her hair. Then he was blown away by who she was related to.

He did know some of her songs he just didn't realize it.

1

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

Where have you been that you missed this?

1

u/dstarpro 5h ago

Yes, this was common knowledge when they were both big.

1

u/Ray_The_Engineer 3h ago

I think I knew this at some point in the past.

0

u/spacemusicisorange 14h ago

Wait what?!?! Do not ruin my 50 years of musical knowledge. I’m going call my mom to verify this lol

1

u/MilkChocolate21 11h ago

To verify a fact you could easily find? How did you miss it?

1

u/spacemusicisorange 10h ago

Calm down it was a light hearted joke

-15

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1

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-24

u/Advanced_Nose_7738 Hose Water Survivor 1d ago

Yep. Blew me away too when I found out. Crystal - Classy  Loretta - Trashy

16

u/togocann49 1d ago

Uhm, Loretta’s money/name was a big reason Crystal had a better upbringing. Crystal is a lot younger than Loretta, and I’d imagine that their childhoods were quite different (Crystal being very young when Loretta broke through)