Tammy Wynette

American country musician (1942–1998)

Musical artist

Tammy Wynette (born Virginia Wynette Pugh; May 5, 1942 – April 6, 1998) was an American country music singer-songwriter and musician and was one of country music's best-known artists and biggest-selling female singers during the late 1960s and first half of the 1970s.

Wynette was called the "First Lady of Country Music", and her best-known song is "Stand by Your Man", which she co-wrote. Many of her hits dealt with themes of loneliness, divorce, and the difficulties of life and relationships. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wynette charted 20 No. 1 songs on the Billboard Country Chart. Along with Loretta Lynn, Lynn Anderson, and Dolly Parton, she is credited with having defined the role of women in country music during the 1970s.

A one-time hairdresser from rural Mississippi who rose to stardom, Wynette recorded 39 country Top 10 hits and sold 30 million records. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1998, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009, the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience Hall of Fame in 2019. She won two Grammy Awards out of a total of 16 nominations. Her recording of "Stand By Your Man" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2010. She was three times named female vocalist of the year in the Country Music *ociation Awards. She was given the American Music Awards Award of Merit, given to artists "who have made truly exceptional contributions to the music industry,"in 1996. Her recording of "Stand by Your Man" was ranked as No. 473 on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and her recording of "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" ranked as No. 69 on Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time". Country Music Television ranked Wynette No. 2 on its list of "40 Greatest Women of Country Music" in 2002.

"She ... became the standard-bearer of an elaborately orchestrated Nashville sound, with pedal steel guitars underlined by strings and backup choruses," prominent music critic Jon Pareles wrote in Wynette's New York Times obituary.

Wynette's 1969 marriage to George Jones, himself a future Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, created a country music supercouple, following the earlier success of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Though they divorced in 1975, Wynette and Jones recorded a series of albums and singles together that hit the charts throughout the 1970s and early 1980s.

1 Early years
2 Musical career
- 2.1 Early career
- 2.2 Later career
3 Personal life
- 3.1 Marriages and children
- 3.2 Alleged kidnapping
- 3.3 Health problems
4 Death
5 Legacy
6 Representations in popular culture
7 Discography
- 7.1 Studio albums
8 Awards and nominations
9 See also
10 References
- 10.1 Bibliography
11 External links

Early years

Wynette was born Virginia Wynette Pugh in Tremont, Mississippi. Her father was a farmer and local musician who died of a brain tumor when Wynette was nine months old. Her mother worked in an office, as a subs*ute school teacher, and on the family farm. After her husband's death, Mildred Pugh left her daughter in the care of her parents, Thomas and Flora Russell, and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to work in a defense plant during World War II. In 1946, Mildred Pugh married Foy Lee, a farmer. By 1954, Wynette's mother was working at University Dry Cleaners, on North McLean Boulevard in Memphis. Three young musicians -- b* player Bill Black; the cleaners owner's younger brother, guitarist Scotty Moore; and their singer, a certain Elvis Presley -- often used the upstairs area to rehearse, and the 13-year-old Wynette Pugh would delight in being bundled into the laundry tubs and wheeled around by them.

The Russell home had no indoor toilets or running water. Wynette was raised with an aunt, Carolyn Russell, who was only five years older, more like a sister than an aunt. As a girl, Wynette taught herself to play a variety of musical instruments her father had left behind.

Wynette attended Tremont High School, where she was a star basketball player. A month before her 1960 graduation, and several months before her 18th birthday, she wed her first husband, Euple Byrd. A construction worker, Byrd had trouble keeping a job, and the young family moved several times. Wynette worked as a waitress, a receptionist, and a barmaid, and also in a shoe factory. In 1963, she attended beauty college in Tupelo, Mississippi, where she learned to be a hairdresser. She continued to renew her cosmetology license every year for the rest of her life – just in case she ever had to go back to a daily job.

Wynette tried to earn extra money by performing at night. Byrd did not support her ambition to become a country singer, Wynette said, and she left the marriage before the birth of their third daughter. According to her, as she drove away he told her, "Dream on, Baby". Years later, Wynette said Byrd appeared at one of her concerts as she was signing autographs and asked for one. She signed it "Dream on, Baby."

Musical career

Early career

While working as a hairdresser in Midfield, Alabama, in 1965, Wynette sang on the Country Boy Eddie Show on WBRC-TV in Birmingham, which led to performances with country music star Porter Wagoner. In 1966, she moved with her three daughters, Gwen, Tina, and Jackie, from Birmingham to Nashville, Tennessee, in hopes of landing a recording deal. After being turned down repeatedly she auditioned for Epic Records producer Billy Sherrill. Initially reluctant to sign her, Sherrill found himself in need of a singer for a tune written by Bobby Austin and Johnny Paycheck, "Apartment No. 9". Upon hearing Wynette's version, he was impressed and put her under contract.

Released in December 1966 as Wynette's first single, "Apartment No. 9" just missed the top 40 on the Country charts, peaking at No. 44. It was followed by "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad", which became a big hit, peaking at No. 3. The song launched a string of top-ten hits that ran through the end of the 1970s, interrupted only by three singles that didn't crack the Top Ten. After "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" was a success, "My Elusive Dreams", a duet with David Houston, became her first No. 1 in the summer of 1967, followed by "I Don't Wanna Play House" later that year. "I Don't Wanna Play House" won Wynette a Grammy award in 1967 for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, one of two wins for Wynette in that category.

During 1968 and 1969, Wynette had five No. 1 hits: "Take Me to Your World", "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", "Stand by Your Man" (all 1968), "Singing My Song", and "The Ways to Love a Man" (both 1969).

"Stand by Your Man" was reportedly written in the Epic studio in just 15 minutes by Wynette and Sherrill. The song "established Ms. Wynette in the role of a long-suffering but determinedly loyal wife, holding the family together even when her husband strayed," Pareles wrote in the New York Times obituary. "Her voice had a husky center, with melancholy balanced by determination; she sounded like an Everywoman with unexpected reserves of strength and affection."

Wynette was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry radio show, a country music ins*ution, on Jan. 4, 1969. Also joining the Opry that day was Wynette's contemporary and personal friend Parton.

Wynette on the set of The Johnny Cash Show in 1971

During the early 1970s, Wynette, along with Lynn, ruled the country charts and was one of the most successful female vocalists of the genre. During the early 1970s, Wynette's No. 1 singles included "He Loves Me All the Way", "Run Woman Run" and "The Wonders You Perform" (all from 1970), "Good Lovin' (Makes it Right)", "Bedtime Story" (both 1971) "My Man (Understands)", "'Til I Get it Right" (1972), and "Kids Say the Darndest Things" (1973). One of them, "The Wonders You Perform", was a hit in Italy in 1971, thanks to Ornella Vanoni, who recorded the song in an Italian version, "Domani è un altro giorno" ("Tomorrow is another day"). In 1968, Wynette became the second female vocalist to win the Country Music *ociation Awards' "Female Vocalist of the Year" award, later winning an additional two other times (1969, 1970); her record for most consecutive wins stood until 1987, when Reba McEntire won the award for the fourth consecutive time.

Concurrent to her solo success, a number of Wynette's duets with husband George Jones reached the Top Ten on the U.S. country singles charts, including "The Ceremony" (1972), "We're Gonna Hold On" (1973), and "Golden Ring" (1976). Fans dubbed the couple the "President and First Lady of Country Music." Wynette and Jones' famously turbulent marriage began in 1969 and ended in 1975, but their professional collaboration continued with regularity through 1980; years later, in 1995, they made a reunion album en*led One. It was well received, although it did not achieve their earlier chart success.

Later career

In 1986, Wynette joined the cast of the CBS now-defunct soap opera Capitol on March 25, 1986, playing the role of a hair stylist-turned-singer, Darlene Stankowski.

In late 1991, Wynette recorded a song with the British group The KLF *led "Justified and Ancient (Stand by the JAMs)", which became a No. 1 hit in eighteen countries the following year, and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.

In 1992, 24 years after it topped the country chart, the song with which Wynette is most closely *ociated in the public eye not only re-entered the public consciousness but became the subject of political debate. Asked during a 60 Minutes interview about her marriage to then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, who had been accused of infidelity, future First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton said, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette". The end of this quotation has also appeared as "some little woman, standing by my man and baking cookies, like Tammy Wynette." However, the reference to cookie-baking more likely comes from an unrelated remark by Hillary Clinton: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life." The remark set off a firestorm of controversy. Wynette wrote to Clinton, saying, "With all that is in me, I resent your caustic remark. I believe you have offended every true country-music fan and every person who has made it on their own with no one to take them to the White House."

In 1993, Wynette recorded a studio album with fellow country icons and friends Lynn and Parton. Honky Tonk Angels was certified Gold by the RIAA the following year after selling more than 500,000 copies.

In 1994, she recorded a studio album of duets with notable other stars from country and other genres. Without Walls, which would be her final solo studio album, included tracks where Wynette duetted with the likes of Elton John, Smokey Robinson and Sting, along with fellow country stars including Wynonna and Lyle Lovett.

The following year, she re-teamed with her former husband and singing partner Jones to record One. The President and First Lady of Country Music's first album together in 15 years would be the First Lady's final studio album.

Personal life

Marriages and children

Wynette was married five times: to Euple Byrd (married April 1960 – divorced 1966), with whom she had three daughters; to Don Chapel (m. 1967 – annulled 1968); to George Jones (m. February 16, 1969 – divorced March 21, 1975); to Michael Tomlin (m. July 18, 1976 – a. September 1976) for 44 days; and to singer-songwriter George Richey (m. July 6, 1978 – her death April 6, 1998).

Wynette was just 17 when she married 26 year-old Euple Byrd; she had given birth twice by the time she was 20. The couple would produce three daughters: Gwendolyn Lee ("Gwen") Byrd (born April 15, 1961), Jacquelyn Faye ("Jackie") Byrd (born August 2, 1962) and Tina Denise Byrd (born March 27, 1965). According to Wynette's autobiography Stand by Your Man, Tina Byrd was born three months prematurely, weighed just two pounds at birth, and spent her first three months in an incubator. The infant weighed not quite five pounds when she arrived home at three months old, and was home for only three weeks when a relative living with the family remarked, "Every time I try to pick her up, she screams in pain and I think it's her back." Tina Byrd was diagnosed with spinal meningitis and was given a slim chance of survival. The child spent two and a half weeks in an isolation room and, finally after 17 days, was taken off the quarantine list. She spent seven weeks in the hospital overcoming all odds; staff called her the "Miracle Baby". Tina Byrd, in 1975, was featured on one of Jones and Wynette's duet albums, George and Tammy and Tina. She appeared on two songs, "The Telephone Call" with George Jones and "No Charge" with her mother.

But Wynette and Byrd's marriage was unhappy. At one point, Wynette recalled later, an argument between the two ended with her spiraling into a mental health episode that left her hospitalized. After her return home, she took the children and attempted to leave Byrd, only to have Wynette's mother, Mildred, attempt to force the couple back together. Wynette later said Byrd then reported her to the police and attempted to have her arrested as an unfit mother and have the children taken away from her. The couple eventually divorced and Wynette relocated with their daughters to Birmingham, where she worked as a hairdresser and received her first exposure singing on television. Byrd was killed in a car wreck in Alabama in 1996.

Wynette's second husband, Chapel, was a singer and songwriter. Born Lloyd Franklin Amburgey in Kentucky, Chapel penned George Jones' 1969 hit "When the Gr* Grows Over Me." Wynette and Chapel had no children. Chapel died in 2015.

Of all five of Wynette's marriages, the one likely highest in the consciousness of the music-listening public is her bond with Jones. The couple, who would eventually tour in a bus with the phrase "Mr. and Mrs. Country Music" painted on the side, tied the knot February 16, 1969, in Ringgold, Georgia. To the public, the couple known as "George and Tammy" cut hit duet after hit duet, often with lyrics pledging their love to each other. But in private, the marriage was volatile, and a major factor in the volatility was Jones' alcoholism, which was so severe, and so well known in Nashville, that it had earned him the nickname "No-Show Jones." In her autobiography Stand By Your Man, Wynette claimed Jones beat her and at one point fired a shotgun at her, allegations he denied.

Jones and Wynette's marriage -- and Wynette's seemingly unending, and futile, attempts to stop her husband's drinking -- are literally the stuff of legend in the country music world: She was the impetus for Jones' infamous lawnmower escapade. Wynette once took away Jones' keys to try to prevent him from leaving their house to visit a nearby bar, only to be thwarted by Jones using the family's riding lawnmower to make the journey. Years later, she recalled how her wayward husband had gone missing and she'd headed out to find him: “I got into the car and drove to the nearest bar 10 miles away. When I pulled into the parking lot, there sat our rider-mower right by the entrance. He'd driven that mower right down a main highway. He looked up and saw me and said, 'Well, fellas, here she is now. My little wife, I told you she'd come after me.'” (Jones also later admitted to previously using a riding mower to access alcohol years earlier while living in Texas and married to his previous wife.) Since then, a plethora of country hits and their corresponding music videos have made lyrical or visual reference to the tale of Jones and the lawnmower; Jones himself appeared on a riding lawnmower in the original music video for Hank Williams Jr.'s 1984 hit "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight." Jones died in 2013.

Wynette and Jones had one biological child, daughter Tamala Georgette Jones (born October 5, 1970). Georgette Jones is also a country singer today and frequently pays tribute to her mother in her performances. George Jones also legally adopted Wynette's oldest daughters Gwen, Jackie and Tina Byrd shortly after he and Wynette married.

In the mid-1970s, Wynette was linked romantically with actor Burt Reynolds and they remained good friends up to Wynette's sudden death. Wynette was also linked romantically with Rudy Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers.

Richey, born George Baker Richardson, was a successful Nashville songwriter and producer. He wrote two of Wynette's hits, "'Til I Can Make It on My Own" and "You and Me." He also wrote two hits for Wynette's ex-husband Jones: "The Grand Tour" and "A Picture of Me (Without You)". He also served as Wynette's manager throughout much of the 1980s. Richey died in 2010.

Alleged kidnapping

Wynette was reported to be kidnapped at gunpoint at a Nashville shopping mall on October 4, 1978. She claimed the masked attacker physically *aulted and abandoned her 80 miles (130:km) south of Nashville. Wynette was do*ented with bruises and a broken cheekbone. One of Wynette's children, Jackie Byrd Daly, in her 2000 memoir, wrote that her mother had confessed to her that the kidnapping was a hoax to cover up domestic violence from her fifth husband, George Richey. Richey denied the allegation.

Health problems

Wynette had many serious physical ailments beginning in the 1970s. After the birth of her daughter Georgette, Wynette had an appendectomy and a hysterectomy. Complications from the hysterectomy included adhesions which later formed into keloids. She developed a chronic inflammation of the bile duct and was hospitalized numerous times over the remainder of her life.

Wynette also developed a serious addiction to painkiller medication in the 1980s. However, in 1986, she sought help, entering the Betty Ford Center for drug treatment that year.

Just after Christmas 1994, Wynette woke in the middle of the night with severe pain and was rushed to Baptist Hospital (now Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital) in Nashville, Tennessee. She was comatose for days as a result of a bile duct infection. Once she was out of the coma, she underwent another operation. She resumed touring not long afterwards.

Pamela Lansden of People quoted Wynette's personal spin on life's tribulations as "The sad part about happy endings is there's nothing to write about."

Death

After years of medical problems that resulted in numerous hospitalizations, roughly 26 major operations and an addiction to pain medication, Wynette died on April 6, 1998, at the age of 55 while sleeping on her couch in her Nashville, Tennessee, home. Wynette's doctor from Pennsylvania said she died of a blood clot in her lung. Despite her persistent illnesses, she continued to perform until shortly before her death and had other performances scheduled.

A public memorial service, attended by about 1,500 people, was held at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium on April 9, 1998. The service was televised live throughout the world by cable networks CNN and The Nashville Network. Parton gave remarks and performed a specially written song, closing her the performance with a chorus from one of her own best-known hits, "I Will Always Love You." Country stars Merle Haggard, Wynonna Judd and Lorrie Morgan also performed, with Haggard offering his performance by a prerecorded video. Also offering eulogies were Naomi Judd and Wynette's frequent collaborator Norro Wilson.

A private, graveside service had been held earlier with a crypt entombment at Nashville's Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery. Her death elicited reactions such as that of songwriter Bill Mack, quoted in the Dallas Morning News, who said she was a "cl* act" and "irreplaceable" and that "she never knew a flat note." Lee Ann Womack was quoted also; she said of Wynette, whose songs often evoked strength and controlled p*ion, "You knew she knew what she was singing about. You can put her records on and listen and learn so much." Wynette was survived by Richey, her husband; four daughters; and eight grandchildren.

In April 1999, Wynette's remains were exhumed in an attempt to settle a dispute over how she died. A new autopsy was conducted a week after three of her daughters filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wynette's doctor, Care Solutions of Nashville and Richey, claiming they were responsible for the country star's demise 12 months earlier. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy declared Wynette died from cardiac arrhythmia. Richey was later dropped as a defendant from the suit, a court dismissed the claims against Care Solutions, and the remaining parties reached a confidential settlement with the doctor. Wynette's remains were reinterred in the Woodlawn Cross Mausoleum, at Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee.

In March 2012, the name on Wynette's tomb was changed from "Tammy Wynette" to "Virginia W. Richardson", the star's legal married name at the time of her death. In March 2014, the name on the tomb was changed back.

Legacy

In 2010 the State of Mississippi designated a segment of Mississippi Highway 23 the Tammy Wynette Memorial Highway. The 17-mile (27:km) stretch of road is in Itawamba County, where Wynette was born in 1942.

Also that year, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville opened an extended exhibit showcasing Wynette's life and career. *led "Tammy Wynette: First Lady of Country Music," the exhibit ran from August 2010 to June 2011.

In 2022, Wynette was honored in Brazil. Her daughter Georgette Jones was among those participating in the tribute, which was aired by the C* Pouco Recurso News.

Representations in popular culture

A limited series that will focus on Wynette and Jones' marriage is currently in production, with actress Jessica Chastain set to play Wynette and actor Michael Shannon playing Jones. The series is based on Georgette Jones' memoir and is currently set to initially appear on the Spectrum streaming service.

Discography

Main articles: Tammy Wynette albums discography and Tammy Wynette singles discographySee also: George Jones and Tammy Wynette discography

Studio albums

Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad (1967)
My Elusive Dreams (with David Houston) (1967)
Take Me to Your World / I Don't Wanna Play House (1968)
D-I-V-O-R-C-E (1968)
Stand by Your Man (1969)
Inspiration (1969)
The Ways to Love a Man (1970)
Tammy's Touch (1970)
The First Lady (1970)
Christmas with Tammy (1970)
We Sure Can Love Each Other (1971)
We Go Together (with George Jones) (1971)
Bedtime Story (1972)
Me and the First Lady (with George Jones) (1972)
My Man (1972)
We Love to Sing About Jesus (with George Jones) (1972)
Let's Build a World Together (with George Jones) (1973)
We're Gonna Hold On (with George Jones) (1973)
Another Lonely Song (1974)
Woman to Woman (1974)
George & Tammy & Tina (with George Jones and Tina Byrd) (1975)
I Still Believe in Fairy Tales (1975)
'Til I Can Make It on My Own (1976)
Golden Ring (with George Jones) (1976)
You and Me (1976)
Let's Get Together (1977)
One of a Kind (1977)
Womanhood (1978)
Just Tammy (1979)
Only Lonely Sometimes (1980)
Together Again (with George Jones) (1980)
You Brought Me Back (1981)
Soft Touch (1982)
Good Love & Heartbreak (1982)
Even the Strong Get Lonely (1983)
Sometimes When We Touch (1985)
Higher Ground (1987)
Next to You (1989)
Heart Over Mind (1990)
Honky Tonk Angels (with Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn) (1993)
Without Walls (1994)
One (with George Jones) (1995)

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards received by Tammy Wynette

References

Bibliography

Bufwack, Mary A. (1998). "Tammy Wynette". In Kingsbury, Paul (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Country Music. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.:602–603. ISBN:978-0-19517-608-7.
Wynette, Tammy; Dew, Joan (October 1979). Stand by Your Man. Simon & Schuster. ISBN:978-0-671-22884-2.
Whitburn, Joel (2009). Billboard Top Pop Singles (12th:ed.). Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, Inc. ISBN:978-0-89820-180-2.

External links

Official website
"Tammy Wynette". Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
"Tammy Wynette". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 3, 2006.
Tammy Wynette at IMDb

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