According to “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Loretta Lynn thought she was done giving birth after her fourth baby arrived. But life had other plans, and in 1963, Loretta found out she was once again pregnant. The news was devastating to Loretta, who was a rising star in Nashville and feared that her singing career “was going to be interrupted or maybe even ended.” Loretta and Doolittle Lynn received an even bigger surprise when their doctor told them “there might be two” — and on August 6, 1964, Loretta gave birth to twin girls.
Loretta named the girls Patsy and Peggy — Patsy after her late friend and singer Patsy Cline, and Peggy after Loretta’s sister, Peggy Sue. Loretta writes that although she was apprehensive about having two more children, the twins were “a blessing.” She found that motherhood was easier after she’d found financial success, saying that she “felt younger with the twins” than when she was a teenager, and that the girls gave her and Doolittle “a whole second life.”
The youngest Lynn siblings apparently inspired some lyrics for Loretta. In the Shel Silverstein-penned tune “One’s on the Way,” she sings about her frustration with finding out she’s pregnant: “Gee, I hope it ain’t twins again!” In her autobiography, she writes that “Patsy and Peggy don’t like the song … I guess that’s why Dolly Parton is their favorite singer.”