Naomi Judd celebrated at ‘River of Time’ memorial service
nypost.comperform “The Rose” with Brandi Carlile. Wynonna Judd paused her performance at one point so that she could redo a section of the song better, her voice soaring as the crowd cheered.The ceremony began with Judd’s daughter Ashley delivering a eulogy that traced her mother’s life from its humble beginnings in Kentucky to the heights of superstardom.“We are here tonight remembering an icon and a legend who left country music better than she found it,” Ashley Judd said tearfully.“She was every woman.
Perhaps this is why everyone felt they knew her,” the actor said. “She was a nurse. She was a single mom who sometimes relied on public assistance.
She was traumatized by early childhood sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, and rape, and she was fired by a boss when she refused to go away with him for a weekend.“Tonight, we remember her in song,” the actor said, introducing her sister Wynonna who sang “River of Time.”The lyrics — “I’m holding back a flood of tears, just thinking ’bout those happy years, like all the good times that are no more,” filled the Ryman Auditorium, which both Judd daughters noted was country music’s “Mother Church.”Carly Pearce performed the Judds’ “Why Not Me,” noting “I’m a Kentucky girl myself,” and saying she had an image in her mind that “Naomi’s flipping her skirt in heaven tonight.”.
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