WASHINGTON (AFP) - A founding member of US country group the Dixie Chicks has been killed in a car crash in Texas, with her former bandmates on Saturday mourning the loss of "a bright light."

Laura Lynch, 65, died in a head-on collision Friday on an undivided highway some 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of El Paso, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

She was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

Lynch, Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie and Emily Erwin were the original members of the Dixie Chicks when the group formed in 1989, entertainment website TMZ said.

Lynch left the group -- now called The Chicks -- in 1995 and was replaced by Natalie Maines.

With Maines as lead singer, backed by the Erwin sisters, the trio catapulted to fame in the late 1990s, becoming one of the best-selling female groups in history with their foot-stomping fusion of bluegrass, rock and country that shook the oft-staid Nashville establishment.

But it was also Maines who told a London concert crowd in 2003 on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq that she was "ashamed" then-president George W. Bush hailed from Texas -- and that the band did "not want this war, this violence."

The comment went viral and the Chicks were blacklisted by the music industry.

Country stations quickly ditched their music -- which included hits like "Wide Open Spaces," "Goodbye Earl" and a popular cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide."

In a post on Instagram, current members of The Chicks said they were "shocked and saddened" by Lynch's death.

"Laura was a bright light... her infectious energy and humor gave a spark to the early days of our band," it said.

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