Country singer-songwriter Carly Pearce earned a standing ovation from the audience gathered in the Grand Ole Opry on Tuesday, where she performed her song, “Dear Miss Loretta,” just hours after legendary vocalist Loretta Lynn passed away.
“We absolutely lost one of the greatest that there ever was and will be and, as I stand here tonight, I feel overwhelmed with just the legacy and the beauty that she is and she was,” Pearce said.
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The “Dashboard Jesus” singer went on to share she had only sung “Dear Miss Loretta” one other time when she debuted it at the Opry. Lynn just so happened to be watching the live stream when Pearce first performed her tribute to the “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
After hearing Pearce’s performance last year, Lynn called the 32-year-old singer and left her a voicemail.
“Hi Carly, this is Loretta, honey,” the “Honky Tonk” legend said. “I’m laying here in bed, just taking it easy, and I’m fixing to get up to wash my face and maybe comb my hair.” With a laugh, Lynn added, “I don’t know, I ain’t got no place to go, have I?”
“Anyway,” Lynn continued, “I love your song. Thank you, sweetheart. I love you, honey. Hey, come and see me sometime.”
“I’ve listened to that message a lot today, and if that does not capture the purest form and the essence of her beautiful soul, I don’t know what else does,” said the Kentucky-born singer. “So, I love you, too, Loretta, and I’m going to sing your song tonight.”
Lynn was open about her Christian faith, even writing this spring on Easter that she is grateful “for all God has done for me.”
Last year, Lynn released a song, “I Don’t Feel at Home Anymore,” in which she sang, “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through / My treasures and my hopes are all beyond the blue / For many Christian children have gone on before / And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
The song continues, “Over in the glory land, there is no dying there / The saints are shouting victory and singing everywhere / I hear the voice of heaven that I’ve never heard before / And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
Stella Parton, the younger sister of Dolly Parton and a country singer in her own right, spoke with CBN’s Faithwire this week about her relationship with the “Lay Me Down” singer.
“I’m not grieving anything other than the loss of her,” said Parton. “She’d been sick for a few years, and so we weren’t really able to enjoy her company like we would’ve liked to, but I know where she went. And I think the way she went, in her sleep, was the greatest gift God could’ve given her. Well done, faithful little soldier.”
“She was a faithful little soldier and a sweet, sweet human being,” she added.
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