Legendary country music star Loretta Lynn had many chart topping songs during the 1960’s and 70’s like “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, “Don’t Come Home A’ Drinking”, and “One’s on the Way” to name a few. She has also spent most of her life surrounded by the supernatural. Lynn is quite honest about her psychic abilities and the fact that she’s been communicating with spirits since her childhood.

   Lynn claims to have had many premonitions and dreams that have come true throughout her life. One outstanding dream was an image of her father lying in a coffin. The very next morning she received a phone call informing her that her father had suddenly passed away from a stroke that night. Some years later, while visiting the house she grew up in, she encountered her father’s ghost as he was sitting happily on the front porch.

       Lynn’s most public experience with the paranormal is her former residence in the town of Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. After marrying her childhood sweetheart at a young age, the two went on the search for the perfect home to live together and raise a family. After a painstaking search, the two found themselves lost on some back roads in Nashville. Suddenly they came upon the perfect house on a plantation in Hurricane Mills. It was destiny as they both instantly knew this was the home they were searching for.

       Not long after moving in, strange things began to happen in the house. Doors would open and close on their own, footsteps would be heard, cold spots would be felt, pictures would be found crooked after being straightened, and occasionally people would feel electric shocks as if something was passing through them. Lynn’s twin daughters began talking to ‘people’ they were seeing in their bedroom. They describe many of them as women wearing old fashioned clothing. Lynn’s oldest son would report seeing soldiers standing in his bedroom. And Lynn herself saw an apparition of a woman in white sitting on the stairs crying.

       As Lynn researched the history of the home she learned that the property was once a plantation with slaves who were treated quite cruelly. A ‘slave pit’ was found underneath the front porch. It was a dark and cramped hole in the cellar with iron bars over the top believed to be where disobedient slaves would be held. Sounds of men walking and pulling a chain behind them would often be heard coming for the pit.

       Eventually Lynn decided to make contact with the spirits in the home and she organized several group séances. During one séance they made contact with a spirit named ‘Anderson’. He was a mean spirit who was angered when asked too many questions and the group witnessed a table move violently from one end of a room to another. It was later learned from local town folk that ‘Anderson’ was the name of the original owner of the plantation and the slaves and that he is actually buried on the property. Lynn also found out that a woman named ‘Beula Anderson’ also once lived in the house. She died 12 days after giving birth to a still born infant. The two are also supposedly buried on the property. And there are a reported 19 Confederate soldiers buried on the property that fought and died in a Civil War battle that actually took place where the plantation stands.

        Lynn and her family lived in the home along with the spirits for many years but today it is a museum and tourist attraction for her fans. However the hauntings continue to occur with many reported events by guests and caretakers. An assistant manager was once locked out of the house on a balcony when the double doors closed and locked behind her. Another time a tour guide was literally pushed down the stairs by an apparition that was seen by guests. It is believed to have been ‘Anderson’ upset at the guide for moving his framed album covers.

       Despite the haunting, Lynn claims that the spirits have never tried to intentionally hurt anyone; they are just mischievous in most cases and letting everyone know that they’re watching over the house. Throughout the years Lynn not only came to accept the spirits but their stories actually inspired some of her hit songs. Ironically though, her song ‘This Haunted House’ was written 2 years before she moved into Hurricane Mills.

- Tom Stewart