AP says...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Naomi Judd, the Kentucky-born singer of the Grammy-winning duo The Judds and mother of Wynonna and Ashley Judd, has died. She was 76.

The daughters announced her death on Saturday in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

“Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness,” the statement said. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”

Naomi Judd died near Nashville, Tennessee, said a statement on behalf of her husband and fellow singer, Larry Strickland. It said no further details about her death would be released and asked for privacy as the family grieves.

The Judds were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday and they had just announced an arena tour to begin in the fall, their first tour together in over a decade. They also made a return to awards shows when they performed at the CMT Music Awards earlier this month.

TMZ adds more:

NJ's passing comes as a bit of a shock -- while she's been public in recent years about different personal struggles she's grappled with throughout her life, including depression dating back to her childhood, nobody seemed to know the extent of what she was battling.

Naomi had also made clear that her issues had left her and her country duo-daughter, Wynonna, estranged for a time ... but they'd recently reconciled and were actually due to hit the road again this year for an arena tour across the country -- the first in over a decade.

[Edited 4/30/22 14:42pm]

Suicide is very, very sad.

We never know what troubles another person has.

RIP Mama Judd

PennyPurple said:

Suicide is very, very sad.

We never know what troubles another person has.

RIP Mama Judd

While nothing specifically said suicide, I regret to say that does seem to be the mostsly logical conclusion here.

NBC Night News noted today that Naomi was on Today a few years ago, talking to Savannah Guthrie and talked about how she'd considered suicide in the past, because of her depression. "It gets that bad sometimes."

Seems like maybe, this time, was one of those times.

All these people dying young, doesn't that worry anybody? Has to be the environment.

2freaky said:

All these people dying young, doesn't that worry anybody? Has to be the environment.

The people that you hear about. People die by suicide every day, young and old. We just don't hear about it. Sylvia Plath killed herself, due to depression, at 30 years old. That was 1963. It's now just shy of six decades later.

I think it's still a lack of acknowledgement of mental health, and subsequent care for that. People still mock people with anxiety, depression, etc. And not that Naomi Judd was mocked. But was she getting the care she needed? Was she being watched over during her depressive moments? Clearly not. Not by her family or doctors. Because if she did kill herself - which is very likely - it didn't take long for it to happen.

I had a friend, Joan, who was married a super nice guy Jody. Jody was tall, Jewish, handsome, smart. But he suffered from depression. While Joan and Jody were puttering around the house one day, Joan was doing something, and Jody went to the bathroom. A few seconds later, she heard a gun shot. Jody had simply walked into the bathroom and shot his brains out in the shower. It was just that quick.

That was 1990 or 1991; over thirty years ago.

So, is the environment still the same now as then? Was it the same for Plath? Are we talking society's attitude toward mental health, or a localized at-home environment?

76 is young, to a point. She's in the third and final act of her life, and had a lot ahead of her. The final tour, the induction (the next day). I wonder the rate of suicide due to depression or bi-polar in people over 70 years old. Is hers a rare case because of age but typical for her diagnosis?

Ashley Judd has revealed that her mother died of self-inflicted gunshot wound. TMZ has more.

My condolences to her family. R.I.P.

I don't understand if Ashley was at the house and she went down to greet a guest, how did she not hear the gunshot?