Laura Lynch, founding member of country music group The Dixie Chicks, died Friday in a car crash in Texas. She was 65 years old.
The death was confirmed by Nikol Endres, justice of the peace for the region.
Ms. Lynch was driving east on Highway 62 near Cornudas, Texas, about 70 miles east of El Paso, when a westbound pickup truck crossed into her lane and struck her van head-on, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. . She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ms. Lynch, who grew up on her grandfather’s ranch in Texas, founded the Dixie Chicks, now known as the Chicks, in Dallas in 1988 with Robin Lynn Macy and two sisters, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire.
The group’s original lineup, in which Ms. Lynch played bass and sang, released only two albums: “Thank Heavens for Dale Evans” in 1990 and “Little Ol’ Cowgirl” in 1992.
In an interview with NPR in 1992, Ms. Lynch said the Dixie Chicks played “cowgirl music.”
“Our brand of cowgirl music is a blend of old-time country music, bluegrass music and acoustic,” she said. “We all sing three- and four-part harmonies. We add some instrumentals, some country swing. It’s our brand of cowgirl music.
Mrs. Macy left the group in 1992. The following year, the group, now a trio, released “I shouldn’t tell you» and began to enjoy moderate success. In 1993, the Dixie Chicks performed at an inaugural ball for President Bill Clinton.
But in 1995, Ms. Lynch was fired from the group and replaced by Natalie Maines.
“We were going into our seventh year, we were starting to reevaluate things,” Ms. Maguire told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1996. “We were making a decision about the future.”
She added: “What do we want to do in the future, where do we want to be in five years? I don’t think Laura really saw herself on the road in five years.
On social networksthe Chicks called Ms. Lynch a “shining light” whose “infectious energy and humor gave a spark to our group’s beginnings.”
“Laura had a gift for design, a love of all things Texas, and was instrumental in the group’s early success,” the band said. “His undeniable talents have helped propel us beyond the streets on street corners and onto stages throughout Texas and the Midwest.”
Information on survivors was not immediately available.
After leaving the Dixie Chicks, Ms. Lynch became a public relations manager at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, according to The Star-Telegram.
She said The Associated Press in 2003 that she took up oil painting and spent much of her time raising her daughter.
“It was worth it,” Ms. Lynch said of her time with the group. “I would become anemic again if I did.”
