Lynn Anderson, singer who topped charts in 1971, dies at 67

Lynn Anderson, whose strong, husky voice carried her to the top of the charts with “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” died July 30 at a hospital in Nashville. She was 67. Her publicist said the cause of death was cardiac arrest. Ms. Anderson first soaked up the national spotlight as a young singer on “The Lawrence Welk Show” between 1967 and 1969. Although she was signed to an independent label, the exposure helped her nab a deal with Columbia Records in Nashville. “He felt country music was coming into its own and deserved to be on national TV,” she said of Welk in a 1987 interview with the Associated Press. “At that time, I was the only one singing country music on national TV every week. He’s one of my heroes and always will be.” And it was “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 was popular because it touched on emotions,” she 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. She made television appearances with such stars as Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, John Wayne and Tom Jones and performed for presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. She was also in episodes of the TV show “Starsky and Hutch” and in the 1982 TV movie “Country Gold.” Ms. Anderson’s 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” (also recorded by the Carpenters). She returned briefly to the country Top 10 in 1983 with a duet with Gary Morris, “You’re Welcome to Tonight.” Lynn Rene Anderson was born Sept. 26, 1947, in Grand Forks, N.D., and grew up in Sacramento, Calif. The daughter of country songwriters Casey and Liz Anderson, she started performing at the age of 6. An award-winning equestrian as a teenager, Ms. Anderson was voted California Horse Show Queen in 1966. In her later years she lived in Taos, N.M., where she faced a number of legal problems...more