Tributes have been paid to founding Dixie Chicks member Laura Lynch, who died in a car crash yesterday. 

The Texas Public Safety Department confirmed Ms Lynch, aged 65, was driving her pick-up truck when was struck by another pick-up truck outside El Paso. 

Members of the band, now known as the Chicks, said they were “shocked and saddened” by Ms Lynch’s death. 

“Laura was a bright light…her infectious energy and humour gave a spark to the early days of our band,” they said online. 

“Laura had a gift for design, a love of all things Texas and was instrumental in the early success of the band. 

“Her undeniable talents helped propel us beyond busking on street corners to stages all across Texas and the mid-West.” 

Ms Lynch formed the Chicks in 1989 with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire, playing the double bass. 

Before she left, the band released three albums together - their 1990 debut Thank Heavens For Dale Evans, Little Ol' Cowgirl in 1992 and Shouldn't A Told You That in 1993. 

Ms Lynch in the Dixie Chicks

Ms Lynch left the band in 1995 after the band started pursuing "a more contemporary sound" and was replaced by Natalie Maines. 

She worked as a public relations officer in the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and told reporters she was focused on raising her daughter. 

Ms Lynch said she never regretted leaving the band. 

After she left the band, the Chicks had its commercial breakthrough with the 1998 album Wide Open Spaces. 

The band was shunned by country radio stations in 2003 after Ms Maines said she did not support the US invasion of Iraq. 

In 2020, the band announced they were changing their name to The Chicks. The word Dixie often refers to the southern states of the US that seceded around 1860 to form the new Confederate States of America, and where slavery was legal.