Lynn’s longtime designer and personal assistant Timothy Cobb is valued more than most of her fans would ever know. In fact, this good friend has been with her for over 30 years.
Lynn described his vital professional and personal role by commenting, “He is my best friend as for knowing each other after all these years. He is my personal assistant, but he does everything. He built my new museum and is the curator. He goes wherever I go. He does my hair and make-up too for appearances, but he also takes care of the houses.” She added, “He’s my companion and we fuss like brothers and sisters.”
Loretta put it best: “He’s my companion. We know what’s on the other one’s mind. We’re just like a brother and sister. We might fuss, but that ain’t nothing. We say we take care of each other.”
This sentiment was shared just as strongly by Cobb. “We're like siblings and look out for each other, and became almost a second family," he said.
Loretta Lynn adds, “Oh, we do fuss about anything just to aggravate. It’s been about not liking my hair or make-up he put on me at times. We’ll fuss when he is cooking stew, ‘cause I’ll tell him he’s puttin’ too much stuff in it!”
Loretta and Tim reside together in a dwelling located behind the historic mansion at The Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She described this arrangement, saying, “After Doo passed away, Tim came to stay full-time with me. He remodeled and built on this house. He designed my tour busses, and then my museum. I could ask him to do anything and he’d take care of it. I don’t have to worry. Seems we have been together forever and we always will. He built this house, and I live in one wing, and he lives in the other wing of it—but we always meet in the middle to fuss. Ha!”
The love and trust goes beyond everyday living, to include when they work together. Cobb appreciates that Lynn gives him a free hand and trusts that his designs will represent her stage presence and her music in a way that does them justice.
With this trust comes a responsibility, but it’s not too much for Cobb to carry. Cobb’s fashion-over-comfort inclination, has given Lynn her own heavy load to bear! She has become accustomed to the necessary evil of weighty designs made to be worn by, as Cobb says, a queen.
The best example of this is the iconic dress of golden beads, which came in at a shocking 75 pounds. When asked about the “heavy price of fashion,” Lynn stated, “When Tim started making my dresses, I got used to ‘em not being comfortable all the time, but I liked the way they looked so I would just wear them, but fuss with him to make the next one lighter.” She added, “We knew that gold bead dress was a one-time thing, like my last Grammy dress, so they went in my museum after I wore them.”
In the end, this team came together to help each other, whether in times of need, career development, fun, as a family, or for Tim to create the artworks in which Loretta Lynn performed her musical art.
They haven’t let fame ruin their down-to-earth personalities, and they possess humble attitudes, not taking any of it for granted. It’s more than evident that these two define teamwork and true friendship.