A founding member of the Dixie Chicks died in a head-on car crash in Texas, officials and the band confirmed.
Laura Lynch, 65, was killed instantly during a collision on Dec. 22 by an oncoming vehicle near El Paso, Texas, said Sgt. Eliot Torres of the Texas Department of Public Safety, according to USA Today and other media outlets. Officials pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
“We hold a special place in our hearts for the time we spent playing music, laughing and traveling together,” the group wrote. “Laura was a bright light…her infectious energy and humor gave a spark to the early days of our band. Laura had a gift for design, a love of all things Texas and was instrumental in the early success of the band.”
The statement added: “Her undeniable talents helped propel us beyond busking on street corners to stages all across Texas and the Midwest. Our thoughts are with her family and loved ones at this sad time.”
Ms. Lynch was one of the four founding members of the group, which was formed in 1989. At one point, she was the group’s lead singer and helped record three of the then-Dixie Chicks’ albums, “Thank Heavens for Dale Evans,” “Little Ol’ Cowgirl,” and “Shouldn’t a Told You That.”
She left the band in 1995 and was replaced by Natalie Maines, who is currently the group’s lead vocalist.
“We were facing going on our seventh year. We were starting to re-evaluate things,” founding Dixie Chicks member Martie Maguire told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1996. “We were making a future decision.”
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 five years from now.”
Ms. Lynch departed long before the group gained notoriety for criticizing then-President George W. Bush after the United States went to war in Iraq in the early 2000s. The group changed its name to The Chicks following riots and left-wing pressure campaigns during the summer of 2020.
During an interview in 2003, she wouldn’t discuss her reasons for leaving the band with Plainview Herald in Texas. She noted that she had no regrets about missing out on the group’s rise to stardom in the late 1990s, however.
In 2003, she told The Associated Press that she was spending her time raising her daughter and painting. “It was worth it,” Ms. Lynch said. “I’d get anemic all over again to do it.”
At the time, she was asked about the Dixie Chicks’ criticism of then-President Bush. Although she didn’t speak about the controversy, she remembered that the band performed the national anthem before the former president.
“I love our president. I really do,” Ms. Lynch told AP at the time. “I think the world of him. I really revere our President Bush, and I revere the highest office in our country to the utmost. And that’s who I am.”
According to the Star-Telegram, after she left the Dixie Chicks, Ms. Lynch worked as a public relations officer with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Ms. Lynch is survived by her ex-husband, Mac Tull, and daughter, Asia, according to reports.
