Country singer Lynn Anderson, best known for her 1970 hit “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” died on Thursday night in Nashville after suffering a heart attack. She was 67.
According to the Tennessean, Anderson died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and had been hospitalized for pneumonia since returning from a trip to Italy.
Her debut single, a 1966 duet with Jerry Lane called “For Better or for Worse,” never cracked the charts, but her tune “If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away)” became a Top 5 hit later that year. She would go on to release a dozen No. 1 country hits.
The North Dakota-born, California-raised songstress was a regular on “The Lawrence Welk Show” for two years during the late 1960s, exposing her to a nationwide audience.
Her Joe South-penned signature hit, “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” enjoyed a five-week stay at the top of the country charts, earning her a Grammy for best female country vocal performance. It also crossed over to the pop charts.
Her popularity began to fade during the second half of the 1970s. Anderson had her last recording for Columbia in 1980. Permian Records released her final Top 10 single, “You’re Welcome to Tonight,” with Gary Morris in 1983. The singer earned another Grammy nomination for the album “Bluegrass Sessions” in 2004.
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Anderson, who was married to producer-songwriter Glenn Sutton from 1968 to 1977, is survived by her partner, Mentor Williams; her father; three children; and four grandchildren.
