Entertainment Music Country Remembering Naomi Judd's Life in Photos The country star died on April 30, 2022, following a longtime battle with mental illness By Andrea Wurzburger and Kate Hogan Published on May 2, 2022 05:22 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos 01 of 18 1986 Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Born on Jan. 11, 1946, in Ashland, Kentucky, Naomi Judd welcomed daughter Wynonna when she was 18 years old. Four years later she gave birth to daughter Ashley and enrolled herself in nursing school in California, before moving her family back to Kentucky and later Nashville, where she and Wynonna landed a recording contract together as country duo The Judds, according to a PBS profile. Together, the women won five Grammys for best country performance by a duo or group with vocal, including here at the 1986 awards. 02 of 18 1987 Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty In 1987, Naomi took her girls to the Academy of Country Music Awards, where she and Wynonna won their fourth of what would eventually be seven top vocal duo awards. "The good news is, I raised two very creative, strong-willed, expressive, passionate women," Naomi told AARP the Magazine in 2007, adding, "The bad news is, I raised two very creative, strong-willed, expressive, passionate women." 03 of 18 1991 William Campbell/Sygma via Getty Together, Naomi and Wynonna had 20 top 10 singles — 15 of which were No. 1 hits — before they released their last full original studio album, Love Can Build a Bridge, in 1990. They followed it up in 1991 with Greatest Hits Volume Two. After Naomi was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1990, the pair went on a farewell tour that, according to Yahoo, was the "top-grossing tour of that year and was the most successful musical event in cable pay-per-view history." It was the unofficial end of Naomi's career, though there was much more to come. "I'd never been sick for a day in my life," she recalled of her hepatitis C diagnosis to AARP the Magazine in 2007. Yet "these guys with starched white coats and degrees told me I was going to die. If I had believed them, I'd be dead by now." 04 of 18 1994 George Rose/Getty In 1994, the mother-daughter pair reunited at the Super Bowl halftime show. 05 of 18 1994 Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty In 1994, Judd attended a taping of Reba alongside fellow country music star, Reba McEntire. McEntire used a similar photo to memorialize her late friend on May 1, 2022, writing, "We've been down the long road together. I sure miss my buddy. Rest In Peace. Finally. Love you Naomi." 06 of 18 1996 Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty In 1996, Naomi arrived on the back of a convertible alongside Billy Ray Cyrus during the 43rd Annual Boomtown Western Gala in L.A. 07 of 18 1999 Naomi, Ashley and Wynonna Judd in 1999. Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Getty In 1999, Naomi and Wynonna attended the premiere of Double Jeopardy to support Ashley, who starred in the film. "Ashley and I are so stinking much alike," Naomi told Robin Roberts in 2016. "We have the same mannerisms. We both read a whole lot. We both love new places. There's such similarities." 08 of 18 2004 Carlo Allegri/Getty The singer was also an accomplished author. She wrote Love Can Build a Bridge in 1995, Naomi's Breakthrough Guide in 2004 and Naomi's Guide to Aging Gracefully in 2007. She also released three children's books. In 2016, she released River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope, in which she was candid about her experience with mental illness. 09 of 18 2004 Evan Agostini/Getty In 1989, Naomi married Larry Strickland, once a backup singer for Elvis Presley. In Naomi's 2007 AARP profile, Strickland joked, "Sometimes a poor old country boy like me can get lost in Juddville. All three of the women are strong, emotional, tell-it-like-it-is individuals." Here, the longtime loves in 2004 at the 27th Annual Kennedy Center Honors Gala at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. 10 of 18 2007 Jemal Countess/WireImage From 2005 to 2007, she hosted Naomi's New Morning on the Hallmark Channel. 11 of 18 2008 Barry Brecheisen/WireImage The mother-daughter duo returned to the stage again in 2008 at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, California. 12 of 18 2010 Steve Exum/Getty Naomi shared a tender moment with Maya Angelou at the luminary's 82nd birthday party in North Carolina in 2010. 13 of 18 2010 Sipa/Shutterstock The Judds reunited again for the Last Encore Tour in 2010. 14 of 18 2011 Rick Diamond/Getty In 2011, The Judds took home the CRB (Country Radio Broadcasters) 2011 Career Achievement Award at the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville. 15 of 18 2013 Paul Redmond/Getty Naomi returned to Hallmark Channel in 2013 for the Home & Family Holiday Special. 16 of 18 2015 Isaac Brekken/Getty The Naomi and Wynonna reunions continued in 2015 when Mom and daughter kicked off their brief Girls Night Out residency at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Afterward, Naomi told Robin Roberts, the two took a "break." "Through the decades, we kind of grew up together and I'm always telling her, 'If I'd known better I would've done better,' " Naomi said. "Wy bore the brunt of all of the mistakes I made and we talk about 'em. We've been through a lot of therapy together." The two grew apart during the filming of their 2011 OWN reality series The Judds and their final tour. 17 of 18 2018 David Livingston/Getty Naomi appeared on Hallmark's Home & Family in 2018, two years after opening up about her depression to Robin Roberts. "What I've been through is extreme. My final diagnosis was severe depression," she shared. "Treatment resistant because they tried me on every single thing they had in their arsenal. It really felt like, if I live through this I want someone to be able to see that they can survive." "They see me in rhinestones, you know, with glitter in my hair, that really is who I am," she said. "But then I would come home and not leave the house for three weeks, and not get out of my pajamas, and not practice normal hygiene. It was really bad." Her condition landed her several stays in psychiatric wards and on different medications — which she said caused her hands to shake and her face to swell up "like a balloon." 18 of 18 2022 Terry Wyatt/WireImage Naomi's last major outing was at the CMT Music Awards on April 11, 2022, where she made her first televised appearance with Wynonna in 20 years. Taking the stage outside of the Nashville Municipal Auditorium, the duo performed their 1990 hit "Love Can Build a Bridge" accompanied by a choir of gospel singers, coming together at the end for a touching family moment. That same day, they announced plans for a fall arena tour. However on April 30, Wynonna and Ashley announced that their mother had died. PEOPLE later confirmed that the singer had died by suicide. "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public," a statement from the pair read. "We are in unknown territory." Just one day later, Wynonna appeared in Nashville for the pair's induction into Country Music Hall of Fame. "I'm gonna make this fast because my heart's broken — and I feel so blessed," Wynonna told the 800 people gathered in Nashville's CMA Theater for the induction ceremony. "I mean, it's a very strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed."