Lynn Anderson was born Sept. 26, 1947, in Grand Forks, N.D., but raised in California. The daughter of country songwriters Casey and Liz Anderson, Lynn started performing at the age of 6, but her first successes were in horse shows. Her quarter horses amassed 700 trophies, and she won major awards as a rider at shows all over California. She earned the California Horse Show Queen title in 1966.

Recording for the small Chart label, she cracked the Top 40 that same year with a song written by her mother, "Ride, Ride, Ride," and secured a residency on The Lawrence Welk Show. With a few more Top 10 hits on Chart to her credit, she married songwriter Glenn Sutton in 1968. The combination of her stunning looks, a powerful major label (Columbia) and the catchy Joe South song "Rose Garden" catapulted her to stardom in 1971. That year, she won the CMA female vocalist trophy (on her fifth nomination) and the song won her a Grammy. She also became a popular guest on talk shows, bringing country music to a wider audience. The album was certified gold, and the single reached No. 3 on the pop charts as well.

For the next four years, she charted numerous Top 10 hits (including four No. 1's), but the hits slowed at the middle of the decade. She divorced Sutton in 1977 and married Louisiana oilman Harold Stream III. That union ended in divorce, and she cited physical abuse. After leaving Columbia Records, she returned briefly to the Top 10 with a Gary Morris duet in 1983, "You're Welcome to Tonight." In 1992, she released the album Cowboy's Sweetheart.