Lynn Anderson, singer of the 70s classic hit (I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden, died July 30 at a hospital in Nashville at the age of 67.
According to her publicist, Lynn Anderson died of cardiac arrest.
A fixture in the 1970s country music scene, the young Lynn Anderson garnered attention as a young singer on “The Lawrence Welk Show” between 1967 and 1969. That exposure helped land her a record deal with Columbia Records in Nashville.
In a 1987 interview with the Associated Press, Anderson said Welk felt county music was coming into its own and deserved to be featured on national television.
“At that time, I was the only one singing country music on national TV every week,” said Anderson. “He’s one of my heroes and always will be.”
Lynn Anderson has died. She was known for country hits "Rose Garden" and "Rocky Top." http://t.co/IvscImyZQa pic.twitter.com/1zMUJXKIX2
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) July 31, 2015
Although she received plenty of attention, it was the single, Rose Garden, that sealed her country music legacy, earning her a Grammy and Country Music Association’s female vocalist of the year award in 1971. It also crossed into mainstream music.
“It was popular because it touched on emotions,” Anderson told the AP. “It was perfectly timed. It was out just as we came out of the Vietnam years and a lot of people were trying to recover.
Other hits included Rocky Top, You’re My Man, How Can I Unlove You?, What a Man, My Man Is and Top of the World, which was also recorded by the Carpenters.
Born Sept. 26, 1947, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Lynn Rene Anderson grew up in Sacramento, California. She was the daughter of country songwriters Casey and Liz Anderson began performing at the age of 6.
As a teenager, Lynn Anderson was an award-winning equestrian and was voted California Horse Show Queen in 1966.
Facing some legal battles in her later years while living in Taos, New Mexico, she was issued a restraining order in 1995 by a Taos judge after her boyfriend said she had threatened him following the end of their 12-year relationship.
