After losing her eldest son, Jack Benny Lynn, Loretta Lynn began singing “Always on My Mind” as a way to remember him. In a tribute published on July 22, 2022, she explained what the song meant to her.
“It was a way for me to tell him I still thought of him.”
Thirty-eight years after Jack’s death, Loretta still wanted to hear other people’s memories of her son.
The Son Who Worked With Horses
Jack was born on December 7, 1949. While his mother built her career on the road, he worked with horses and as a blacksmith at the family’s ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. He was a father himself.
On July 22, 1984, Jack drowned while attempting to cross the Duck River on horseback. He was 34. Loretta was hospitalized in Illinois at the time, recovering from exhaustion during a tour. Her husband, Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn, traveled there to tell her what had happened.
In her later remembrance, Loretta described Jack as quiet and devoted to horses. She remembered his resemblance to his father and the fun he shared with his grandmother.
She Wanted the Memories Shared
Her team eventually asked whether they should continue posting on the anniversary of Jack’s death. Loretta wanted them to keep doing it. Hearing his name and knowing that others remembered him mattered to her.
She encouraged families to speak about children they had lost, share photographs and tell their stories. By 2022, Jack had been gone longer than he had lived.
The Remembrance Continued After Loretta’s Death
In July 2023, the anniversary arrived for the first time since Loretta’s own death the previous October. Her team continued the tradition she had requested, publishing family photographs and directing readers back to her 2022 tribute.
The accompanying message added something important: according to her team, losing Jack was among the few experiences Loretta had found too painful to write a song about. She had nevertheless always been willing to talk about her eldest boy.
Her choice of “Always on My Mind” offered another way to express that loss. An existing song helped her say that she was still thinking of Jack.
In 2023, her family and team were still sharing his photographs and telling his story, just as she had asked.