MENU
Music

Naomi was Mother Judd to Wynonna

Full name
11 Jan 2022
5 min read
Question: the elder of the judds was...

While cursory country music fans were continually trying to discern if the tandem was a mother-daughter combo or a sister-sister team, The Judds kept on writing their own remarkable story.

Born Diana Ellen Judd in Ashland, Kentucky in 1946, the eventual, maternal leader of the duo would get (unexpectedly) pregnant at the age of 17, soon becoming a mother at 18-years-old with the arrival of daughter, Christina Ciminella (the surname taken from Diana’s new husband, Michael Ciminella, whom she reportedly married to save face).

Soon, the new family moved west to Los Angeles, where a second daughter, half-sister Ashley, was born in 1968.  As mom bounced around menial L.A. jobs ranging from waitress to model to secretary, the marriage eventually dissolved and, come 1976, the female trio moved back to Kentucky, where Diana changed her name to Naomi and began studying to become a nurse.  Three years’ later, the trio of Judds went back to the West Coast so mom could finish her nursing studies.  Shortly thereafter, as the elder daughter also endeavored a name change – going from Christina to Wynonna – it became increasingly-apparent that the country western songs with which mom found salve in their turbulent lives was rubbing off on her progeny.

Wynonna’s overt talent found the family moving yet again – this time to Nashville, where, after the mother-daughter tandem started recorded songs together on cassette tape, the family finally caught a break in 1983 via one of Naomi’s nursing patients, and, suddenly, the tandem had themselves an audition with RCA executives.

And were signed to a record deal on the spot.

The first of six studio albums from The Judds, Why Not Me, came out in ’84, followed by four more albums in the decade.  Catching the proverbial lightening in a bottle, the tandem would soon lay claim to five Grammys and nine Country Music Association Awards, all in the window between 1984-1992.  Before being usurped by the likes of Brooks & Dunn, The Judds were the most commercially-successful duo in the history of country music.

And though Naomi retired for health reason in 1991, her daughters’ respective talents lived amply on, as Wynonna began a successful solo career with nine more studio albums, while Ashley became one of films’ most in-demand leading ladies.

In 2021, The Judds were elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame as part of a Hall class which included the likes of Ray Charles.

Share this post
No items found.