Well, I was borned a Coal Miner's Daughter In a Cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler (Loretta Lynn) The ballad of Loretta Lynn is a legend born through a complex interaction between truth and fiction, individual and social history, myth, region, music, urban society and folk culture.* The "Coal Miner's Daughter," a popular myth of working-class Southern women which Loretta Lynn has both created and portrayed, may become as pervasive as the myth of the antebellum Southern lady, the belle, Scarlett O'Hara, or the benighted, but beautiful hillbilly, Daisy Mae. Through music and autobiography, the image and reality of Loretta Lynn have become so nearly equated that it is difficult to untangle the threads of regional and national culture which are so tightly bound in her image. Closely and consistently resembling the married woman portrayed in her lyrics and recordings, Loretta Lynn is a rural Southerner who represents the traditional value-orientation of Southern culture through her original compositions and her authentic folk style. Her autobiographical music and her life story provide important information about the social history of white, working-class, rural Southern women, and she appeals particularly to a female audience by combining liberated and traditional gender roles in her lyrics. At the same time, she reinforces the American values of individualism, patriotism and freedom. The fact that Loretta Lynn's often repeated life history has become the basis of a popular song, a popular film and a best-selling autobiography—each entitled Coal Miners Daughter— indicates the public's receptivity to her portrayal of Southern culture. She has become a contemporary Southern myth.1