Founding Dixie Chicks Member Laura Lynch Dies From Head-On Collision At 65

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Musician Laura Lynch reportedly died on December 22 at the age of 65.
Lynch had been involved in a head-on collision whose details are still pending.
She had played the upright bass as an original member of the Dixie Chicks group.

On Friday, December 22, Laura Lynch was reportedly involved in a head-on collision that resulted in her death. Billboard reports that Lynch was 65 when she died. As of the evening of December 23, details of the crash are not known but news of Lynch’s crash and death has reportedly been confirmed to CBS News through her cousin, Michael Lynch.

According to the Dixie Chicks biography on Country Music television, Lynch played upright bass alongside sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer. Together, they released three albums before Lynch parted ways with the band and was replaced with Natalie Maines.

Laura Lynch died in a head-on collision

A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety told Fox News Digital that Lynch died seven miles west of Cornudas on Friday morning. While Lynch was driving her car, another vehicle hit hers straight on while trying to pass another driver on a two-way highway.

The band issued a statement on Saturday calling Lynch a “bright light,” adding that “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 concludes, “Her undeniable talents helped propel us beyond busking on street corners to stages all across Texas and the mid-West.”

Laura and the Chicks

Not only did Lynch bring her bass skills to the band, she also was the one who reportedly helped get them their band name. Her original suggestion was the Dixie Chickens but her musical sisters mused, “Ooh, I don’t know about being called chickens,” and so they shortened it to “Dixie Chicks.”

In June 2020, the band, minus Lynch, would go on to shorten their name even further to simply the Chicks because of the term dixie’s deep association with the Confederacy and the South during the time of slavery.

Dixie Chicks performing on THE TEXAS CONNECTION, 1993 / Everett Collection

Beside Lynch in the original Dixie Chicks lineup was fiddler Maguire, guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, and instrumentalist Strayer filling in all the rest.

Although her time with the band was not to last, Lynch said she did not regret the short time together that ended before they became a household name. “It was worth it,” she asserted. “I’d get anemic all over again to do it.”