Laura Lynch, a founding member of The Dixie Chicks, has been killed in a head-on car crash in Texas.
The 64-year-old musician died instantly after another car slammed into her vehicle as it was trying to overtake on a highway outside of El Paso Friday afternoon, TMZ reports.
The driver of the other vehicle was rushed to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while Lynch was declared dead at the scene.
Lynch co-founded The Dixie Chicks alongside Robin Lynn Macy, Martie Erwin and Emily Erwin back in 1990.
The Texan-born songstress recorded three albums with the band before leaving in 1993.
Lynch originally played upright bass for the wildly popular country group, before providing lead vocals on their third album, “Shouldn’t a Told You That.”
She was replaced by Natalie Maines in 1995. Little is known about Lynch’s life and career following her departure from the band.
In a 2003 news article, it was reported that Lynch was living in Mineral Wells, Texas.
She had one daughter, Asia, and was married to Mac Wells, who had won $26.8 million in a lottery during the early 1990s.
Lynch purportedly spent her free time “learning to oil paint” and had no regrets about leaving the Dixie Chicks after suffering from exhaustion.
She also spoke fondly of her years with the group, declaring: “It was worth. I’d get anemic all over again to do it.”
After Lynch’s departure from the band, the Dixie Chicks soared to international success with the release of their album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998.
The group released two more albums in quick succession, “Fly” in 1999″ and “Home” in 2002, each of which sold tens of millions of records.
However, the wildly successful band were blasted back in 2003 after Maines spoke out against America’s invasion of Iraq and said she was ashamed President George W. Bush was from her home state of Texas.
The band eventually recovered from the controversy, and rebranded as “The Chicks” in 2020.
