The 57-year-old singer, who performed with her mom in the iconic country duo The Judds, shared a throwback photo of Naomi alongside younger sister Ashley Judd on Sunday. Naomi died last weekend at the age of 76.
In the summery shot, Naomi, red hair perfectly blown out as usual, snuggles Wynonna with one arm while holding little Ashley in the other.
Ashley, who also shared the photo on Instagram as part of her own tribute to her mom, revealed in her caption that the shot was taken at Little Cat Creek, located in the girls’ home state of Kentucky.
Naomi was open in life about her enduring struggles with mental health, which Ashley elaborated on in a recent Mother’s Day essay penned for USA Today. The 54-year-old actress described the struggles as “the wounds [Naomi] carried from a lifetime of injustices that started when she was a girl. Because she was a girl.”
“My mama was an extraordinary parent under duress,” Ashley continued. “She showed my sister and me the power of having a voice and using it, and there has been no greater lesson.”
Tragically, Naomi passed just one day before she and Wynonna were set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame for their work as The Judds. Before presenting the sisters with the Stagecoach award, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame Kyle Young shared a few words about Naomi and Wynonna’s music.
“We can’t ever know all their struggles, but we know all their songs,” he said. “Their stories have been well documented, Naomi and Wynonna, a mother and daughter forced together and forged together. It’s all complicated — and it all emerged in beauty and triumph.”
Wynonna and Ashley tearfully accepted the award onstage together, to the thundering applause and support of the crowd.
“I’m gonna make this fast because my heart’s broken — and I feel so blessed,” Wynonna told the crowd as Ashley stood by her side. “I mean, it’s a very strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed.”
Concluding her short but moving speech, Wynonna assured the crowd she would continue to honor her mother through their shared passion: country music.
“Though my heart’s broken, I will continue to sing,” she promised the crowd, “because that’s what we do.”
[via]
