Laura Lynch, founding member of Dixie Chicks, dies in car crash
AUSTIN, Texas – Laura Lynch, a founding member of the American country band Dixie Chicks, died in a head-on car crash on a Texas highway, law enforcement said on Dec 23.
“We are shocked and saddened to learn of the passing of Laura Lynch,” the band, which renamed themselves The Chicks in 2020, wrote on social media.
“Laura was a bright light… her infectious energy and humour gave a spark to the early days of our band,” the group said in the statement.
Lynch, who co-founded the popular group in 1989 in Dallas along with musicians Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie and Emily Erwin, died in a collision on a highway outside El Paso on Dec 22, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
Lynch, 65, was at the wheel of her vehicle driving eastbound on US Route 62 when another car travelling in the opposite direction attempted to pass a vehicle on a two-way undivided portion of the highway.
It crashed into Lynch’s Ford truck and she was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the other vehicle was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
The Chicks said she was “instrumental” to the band’s early success.
Lynch was their bassist and, at one point, the main vocalist. She left the group in 1995.
Originally founded as a bluegrass band, Dixie Chicks released their major label debut Wide Open Spaces in 1998, selling “more CDs than all other country music groups combined”, and earning their first Grammy Award, according to the awards’ website. – REUTERS
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