How Country legend Loretta Lynn gave the Grim Reaper the slip during a catastrophe in 2021
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Loretta Lynn, 90, country legendary country singer had cheated death not once, but many times. Most notably, when she escaped raging floods that swept through her Tennessee home in 2021. However, one of the singer's beloved staffers, Wayne Spears, a logtime ranch foreman, drowned in the same floods.
RadarOnline reported that Lynn's life was filled with extreme highs and similar lows, with tragedy following her like a dark shadow through nearly every decade of her life.
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Although the 'Coal Miner's Daughter' crooner escaped the flood without injury, sources revealed she was devastated by the loss of Spears. "The Grim Reaper keeps coming for Loretta," an insider revealed following the tragic incident. "She avoided him this time by a sheer stroke of luck, but you have to wonder how much tragedy this woman can take," the insider continued, adding, "Loretta and Wayne spoke every day and he was more than a ranch boss to her. He was a special friend and she loved him like a son."
On August 21, 2021, Lynn's property in Hurricane Mills and surrounding areas were flooded because of 17 inches of rain in 24 hours. "Hours before the storm struck, Loretta was keen on visiting the antebellum mansion, where she used to live, which is now a museum," the insider said, adding, "She wanted to say hello to visitors at the museum but once the weather turned, she bolted herself in at her newer house on the ranch to wait it out. Wayne was checking on the barn and animals when the flood struck. He clung to beams in the barn before it collapsed and the flood swept him away."
Lynn honored Wayne in a Facebook post that read, "There are no words at the ranch today... only tears. We lost my amazing ranch foreman, Wayne, in this devastating flood. He took such good care of things here on the ranch for us. He's one of us and the whole Lynn family is heartbroken."
Over the course of her long life, Lynn reportedly cheated death and suffered many heartbreaks. In 2017, she suffered a stroke and a hip fracture in 2018. Additionally, she suffered from glaucoma. She caught pneumonia and had to undergo knee operations several times.
Her son Jack Benny Lynn drowned in 1984 while trying to cross the Duck River on horseback. Just 12 years later, he beloved husband Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn died. Her daughter Betty Sue died in 2013 and while Jack's son Jeffrey in 2016. Over the years, people wondered how she could go on while tragedy doggedly pursued her.
The gutsy woman did not let them hold her back and she soldiered on, proving all the people, who thought the flood tragedy would break her, wrong. "The devastation at the ranch is horrifying. Loretta must be in shock," a source said in 2021, adding, "She could have easily been caught in the flooding and died. Friends and loved ones are breathing a sigh of relief that didn't happen."
However, in 2022 Lynn died surrounded by family. She knew her time had arrived and she had even planned her funeral. How long could she have dodged the Grim Reaper who always gets his due.