NASHVILLE – Grammy-winning country vocalist Naomi Judd, one half of mother-daughter duo The Judds, died Saturday. She was 76.
Judds’ daughters Wynonna and Ashley announced her death on Saturday.
“Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” both sisters tweeted. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”
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A statement shared on behalf of her husband and fellow singer, Larry Strickland, said she died near Nashville. It said no further details about her death would be released and asked for privacy as the family grieves.
The Judds will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday as planned.
“Naomi overcame incredible adversity on her way to a significant place in music history. Her triumphant life story overshadows today’s tragic news,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “Her family has asked that we continue with The Judds’ official Hall of Fame induction on Sunday. We will do so, with heavy hearts and weighted minds. Naomi and daughter Wynonna’s music will endure.”
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The duo achieved 14 No. 1 hits over three decades, splitting as a performing act in 1991 after doctors diagnosed Naomi Judd with hepatitis. Between 1984 and 1991 alone, The Judds had 20 top 10 hits, and tallied five Grammys, nine CMA Awards and seven Academy of Country Music Awards.
Since arriving in Music City in 1979, The Judds were foundational staples of country music’s continued pop evolution through the 1980s and beyond.
In a 2019 interview with The Tennessean (part of the USA TODAY Network), Wynonna noted of her and her mother’s careers, “She was 36 and I was 18. To go from the outhouse to the White House, to know that we went from welfare to millionaire, and we’re the American dream. People are going to see this and see themselves in us. It’s important to remember we are a mother and daughter who came out of nothing and made it … and if we can do it, you can, too.”
In 2016, Naomi opened up about her battle with depression, telling ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview that she had been diagnosed with severe depression and had spent time in psychiatric hospitals. At the time she said she was confronting lingering issues from her childhood as part of her therapy, including being molested by a relative when she was 3.
Naomi was born Diana Ellen Judd on Jan. 11, 1946, in Ashland, Kentucky. A musically gifted honor roll student, she became pregnant but married Michael Ciminella – instead of the child’s biological father. She missed her high school graduation to give birth to that child, Christina (Wynonna), in 1964.
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Naomi’s musical desires persisted as she raised Wynonna amid significant turmoil.
By 1972, Naomi and her husband had moved to Los Angeles, where she also gave birth to Wynonna’s sister Ashley. However, in that same period, she and Ciminella also divorced. Naomi attempted to piece together a life for her family in LA as a welfare recipient also working secretarial, waitressing and modeling jobs, but eventually moved back to Kentucky.
“We were (living) on a mountaintop in Kentucky. We didn’t have a telephone or a TV,” she told The Tennessean in 2021. “We were so broke, and wearing flea market dresses. We’d have these fantasies, and we were really goofy. We had such a sense of humor. And (we were) so eager to try new stuff and make fun of ourselves.”
After a brief stint back in LA, Naomi moved the family to Nashville in 1979 and took a job working as a nurse at a hospital in Franklin, Tennessee. She also formed a duo with her then 19-year-old daughter: The Judds. By…
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