Singing the Praises of a Reluctant Coal Miner’s Daughter

Singing the Praises of a Reluctant Coal Miner’s Daughter

By Jimmy Hatcher

This was 1980, not long after Sissy Spacek had won the Academy Award as best actress for her performance in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the classic biopic on country western icon Loretta Lynn.

One day, I got a call from my Keswick friend, world horse star Peggy Augustus, to come down for a fundraiser.

“Oh, and by the way,” she said, “Sissy Spacek and her husband, Jack Fisk, will be sitting at our table.”

Well, as soon as I could, I bought a tape of the movie and it didn’t take very long to understand why Sissy won the award. Her performance was dazzling.

The weekend came and down to Peggy’s I went, then over to the fundraiser we went. It was held in a big tent and once we located our table, to my delight I was actually sitting next to the actress, who had moved with her husband to a farm in Keswick in 1982.

Naturally, I told her how much I enjoyed the movie. And then, I was somewhat startled when she told me she originally did not want to make the film.

Sissy told me she’d been a singer specializing in rock music at the start of her career, and she initially felt her sound and Lynn’s country sound just didn’t mix. She also said that if her acting career had not taken off, she probably would have gone back to singing.

Turns out Loretta Lynn saw her screen test and she and the studio executives insisted that she make the movie. She and Lynn soon became fast friends, and she definitely wanted Sissy to sing her songs in the film.

Lynn helped her learn to sing and play guitar in her style. The film’s soundtrack featured Sissy singing all of Lynn’s hits used in the movie, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

Meanwhile, we also got in to some horse talk. Sissy was from Texas and had always ridden Western. But she was then taking jumping lessons at the Barracks stable in Charlottesville and hoped to be fox chasing that fall with her husband, Jack, a producer and director who also played polo.

I smartly said, “What’s the studio going to say about that?”

She replied, “I’m the studio now.”