For over four decades now, Loretta has fashioned a body of work as artistically and commercially successful — and as culturally significant — as any female performer you'd care to name. Her music has confronted many of the major social issues of her time, and her life story is a rags-to-riches tale familiar to pop, rock and country fans alike.

The "Coal Miner's Daughter" — the tag refers to a hit single, an album, a best-selling autobiography, an Oscar-winning film, and to Lynn herself — has journeyed from the poverty of the Kentucky hills to Nashville superstardom to her current status as an honest-to-goodness American icon.