How to Spend a Day at Butcher Holler at Loretta Lynn & Crystal Gayle Childhood Cabin plus Webb’s Grocery Store
As you drive into Van Lear, Kentucky towards Webb’s Grocery Store check out the street signs like Silk Stockings Loop, Possum Hollow Road, etc. I love the names. Most are just straight and to the point.
First thing to know is that you don’t need to be an early bird. Webb’s Grocery Store opens about 10am and the place that you purchase tickets for Loretta Lynn’s place. But don’t forget that Crystal Gayle was her little sister and lived here as well. (Also, they sell Moon Pies. Grab a few! They are wonderful.)
The store was a company store for the mines and been open for over 100 years. The store is now run by a distant relative of Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle.
I love this nice little creek which is near the cabin.
Unfortunately, the cabin is closed due to Covid19 so check before you go with Webb Grocery at 1917 Miller’s Creek, Van Lear, KY 41265 or call (606) 789-3397.
But you can still see it from the road.
Van Lear also has a great little park so feel free to grab a picnic lunch at Webb’s and head down. It even has a train in it. Van Lear also has another museum that is right in town to check out if you are in the area.
Brief History
The little cabin in Butcher Hollow turned out would turn out two amazing stars, Lorretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle. Plus Willie “Jay” Lee Webb and Peggy Sue Wright who both would have record deals but they did not have the same success as their two sisters did.
The Webb family included eight children who all were born in the cabin except for Crystal Gayle, the youngest child, who born in the hospital in a Paintsville, Kentucky.
Loretta Lynn was born in April 1932. In 1948, Loretta Webb married Oliver Lynn. She was only 15 years old at the time. In 1953, Oliver would buy Loretta a guitar and she taught herself to play. Oliver encourage her to start a band.
Seven years later, she had her first record deal and four children under the age of 12. Four years later, she would have twin girls and two year later, she would be a grandmother at the age of 34. But that would just be the beginning of her story.
Loretta Lynn career would span six decades and included multiple gold albums. The career would last longer then her marriage as her husband died in 1996 just before their 50th anniversary.
Her song the Coal Miner’s Daughter was one of her biggest hits but was also a movie staring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones which was a biographical film of Loretta’s life including the her difficult relationship with her husband.
The film was a box office hit and received seven Academy Award nominations, won a Best Actress Oscar for Spacek, the soundtrack went gold, received several Golden Globe awards, plus awards from both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Loretta’s life has been one that is a shinning example of moving from being penniless as a child to hitting the highest heights in country stardom. It is one of standing by your man and working it out. A life of great joys and great sadness as she survives hardship including the lost of her husband and two of her children.
The Coal Miner’s Daughter is about the beginning of her life and Still Women Enough is about the second part of her life. At 88, she is still going strong.
But let’s also talk about her sister, Crystal Gayle who was born in 1951 which was about 3 years after Loretta married and left home. Crystal would be the only child born at a hospital and would live her first four years in the cabin before her father developed black lug disease and they moved to find him better treatment.
Crystal would be encouraged by her sister, Loretta, to tour during the summer while in high school. Crystal would develop a very different style from her sister as the new family home in Wabash was an urban setting and exposed her to a very diverse cultural of music.
Crystal first performance at the Grand Ole Opry would be at age 16 to replace her sister spot as Loretta was to ill to perform that evening. Upon graduation in 1969, Crystal would sign her first recording contract but was over shadowed by her sister in the world of country music and she felt stigmatized for being Loretta’s baby sister. Her career was stalled from the beginning.
But with her sister encouragement, Crystal moved into a different direction. In 1977, she became a crossover star. “Don’t it Make My Brown Eyes Blue” was released and hit number 1 on the Billboard country songs chart and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 just in the United States. The song also hit number 5 in the United Kingdom and it just went around the world.
Crystal Gayle had created herself with a foot rooted in county but a toe dipped in pop and folk music. But the most important thing is that she opened the doors for other female country pop artists like Faith Hill, Shania Twain, and Carrie Underwood.
She has eighteen number 1 hits which is two more then her sister, Loretta Lynn. Plus only Dolly, Reba, and Tammy have more number 1 hits then she has in country music history. (Just in case you have not hear of them, the last names would be Parton, McEntire, and Wynette.)
In her personal life, Crystal Gayle meet her husband in high school but married him when she was twenty and after he completed college. They are still together and will be celebrating their 50th anniversary in the summer of 2021.
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