Before Naomi Judd recorded with her daughter Wynonna, she worked as an intensive-care nurse. Her careers followed a different sequence from those of Alberta Hunter, who entered nursing after working as a singer.
Nursing school with two children
She was born Diana Ellen Judd on January 11, 1946 in Ashland, Kentucky, was pregnant at seventeen, and was a single mother of two by her early twenties, moving between Kentucky, California and Tennessee and working whatever job was available.
She went to nursing school in her late twenties — at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, then at College of Marin in California — and qualified as a registered nurse in 1979.
She moved the family to Nashville and worked as an RN, largely in intensive care, while trying to get her elder daughter Wynonna heard by anybody in the music business. The often-told version is that she gave a demo tape to a producer whose daughter she had nursed on the unit.
The Judds
RCA signed the pair in 1983. Over the following eight years The Judds took five Grammys, nine Country Music Association awards and fourteen number one country singles, and were for a period the most successful duo in the genre.
Judd kept her nursing licence current.
Hepatitis C
Judd announced in 1990 that she had hepatitis C. In her account, she linked the infection to a needlestick during her nursing career.
She retired from touring in 1991, at the height of the act's success. The farewell tour ran through December of that year.
After her hepatitis went into remission, Judd resumed performing with Wynonna on occasion. The duo reunited for a Super Bowl halftime performance in 1994 and later toured together again.
Judd, who had spoken publicly about severe depression, died by suicide in Tennessee on April 30, 2022. She was 76. The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame the next day.
Advocacy
Naomi Judd at the 2012 American Humane Association awards. State Farm, CC BY 2.0. Cropped version from the file record.
Judd became a spokesperson for the American Liver Foundation in 1991 and established the Naomi Judd Education and Research Fund.
Related
Sources
- Naomi Judd, for the chronology, her nursing training and the hepatitis C diagnosis. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- Love Can Build a Bridge, Naomi Judd, 1993. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- Naomi Judd, of Grammy-winning duo The Judds, dies at 76. Associated Press, April 30, 2022. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, Public Law 106-430, 2000. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Accessed September 9, 2026.
- Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum: The Judds (accessed 2026-11-11)
- Image source: Naomi Judd AHA (cropped).jpg · CC BY 2.0.