Wynonna Judd Breaks Silence After Mother Naomi Judd’s Death, Reveals Psalm They Recited Before Her Passing By Tré Goins-Phillips for Faith Wire
Country music legend Naomi Judd passed away unexpectedly Saturday afternoon at the age of 76. In her final moments, the matriarch and her two daughters, Wynonna and Ashley, recited Psalm 23.
The elder Judd’s tragic and unexpected death came just one day before she and her daughter Wynonna — the leading ladies of the iconic, Grammy-winning country duo The Judds — were to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Through tears, Wynonna and her younger sister, actor Ashley Judd, appeared Sunday evening at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville to accept the induction medal, according to The Tennessean.
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Ashley spoke briefly after country singer-songwriter Ricky Skaggs presented the prize to Wynonna, who followed her sister with a brief speech, telling those gathered for the ceremony: “It’s a strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed. … But though my heart is broken, I will continue to sing.”
Wynonna, 57, said her mother passed away at 2:20 p.m. and that she kissed her “on the forehead and walked away.” But before Naomi Judd drew her final breath, her daughter recalled, she, Wynonna, Ashley, and other loved ones prayed Psalm 23 together:
The LORD is my shepherd; I have what I need.
He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters.
He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even when I go through the darkest valley,
I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff — they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Only goodness and faithful love with pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD as long as I live.
Wynonna ended her four-minute speech Sunday by reciting Psalm 23. The crowd in Nashville declared it with her.
On Saturday, Wynonna and Ashley shocked the country with a brief announcement, writing, “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. 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. We are in unknown territory.”
