The world lost an icon last October when country music icon Loretta Lynn passed away at 90 years old.
Though she leaves behind her family, friends, and country music colleagues, her legacy and impact on the genre and industry will live on forever through her music.
And now, a posthumous book that was released by Lynn’s family this past month will allow yet another avenue for Loretta’s heart and soul to continue on.
The book, which was released back on May 23rd of this year, is called A SONG AND A PRAYER and was written and finished by the “Queen of Country Music” herself shortly before she passed.
If you are to pick up a copy of Loretta’s last work, you’ll find a collection of prayers, sharing of faith, and song lyrics that were inspired by her expansive musical catalogue and songwriting sessions throughout her career.
Loretta loved to work and did so all the way up until her death, as explained by Lynn’s daughters who stopped by the Today Show to honor their mother and promote her new book.
Twin daughters Peggy and Patsy are the youngest of Loretta’s children, and even performed together in a country music duo called “The Lynns” for a short time in the late 1990s.
They sat down with the female members of the Today Show last week for an emotional tribute and interview. NBC’s Savannah Guthrie opened up after the tribute with a heartfelt question:
“There’s a way in which everyone feels that Loretta Lynn belonged to them, but she was your mom. It’s been just a few months since she passed, how are you guys doing?”
The twins looked at each other momentarily, then Peggy responded with:
“We’re doing okay. You kind of have to go through these emotions and this journey of that.”
The previous weekend before the interview was Mother’s Day, the first that the Lynn family spent without their family patriarch. Hoda Kotb asked how they managed to get through that tough day, to which Peggy gave a beautiful answer:
“I made homemade banana pudding. My mom’s favorite thing in the world was banana pudding, and when all else failed, that’s what we could always get her to eat.
And that was my honoring for her was to make that homemade banana pudding. Those are the things that do live on.”
Patsy then added:
“We’re from a big family, and you surround yourself with family on those days that are hard. That’s what gets you through.”
With A SONG AND A PRAYER being faith-centric, the interview shifted to how thankful they were to have their mother’s thoughts on Heaven included in the book transcribed so close to the date of her passing.
The twins were asked if that gave them comfort, to which Patsy replied:
“It does. That was one of the things that Peggy and I said. No matter what faith people have in their lives, my mom was a strong believer. It gave us hope to see her again and for her to know that she’s going to see us again. What more can you ask for?”
Finally, it was Peggy that revealed that their mom had still kept busy even in her final days and was even still writing songs shortly before her death:
“Mom is one of those people who (had) just the energy. She was working on several different things, and she was still writing songs and all kinds of stuff. She had so many irons in the fire.”
The full clip from the interview can be seen below:
