"I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette" -- Hillary Clinton

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

Tammy Wynette's life was the stuff country songs are made of. She experienced multiple marriages, multiple lovers, gave birth to four daughters, attained country music superstardom, dealt with a husband's alcoholism, a kidnapping that might have been faked, addiction to prescription painkillers, and posthumously there was a missing will, and a wrongful death suit.

Born Virginia Wynette Pugh on May 5, 1942, her father died when she was nine months old. Her mother sent her to live with her grandparents in a shack without electricity or indoor plumbing. She grew up picking cotton in Mississippi while dreaming of becoming a singer.  

As a teen, she sang with a friend and even got paid for it at times. High school friends described her as precocious when it came to men and dating. Her mother stopped her first high-school attempt at marriage, but soon she planned marriage to a man who instead remarried his ex-wife. So Wynette married his brother instead. The brother was Euple (I am not making this up: EUPLE) Byrd. The marriage lasted from 1960 to 1965 and produced three daughters. Although Wynette had attended beauty school, she had bigger plans than working as a cosmetologist.

She and the children moved to Nashville in 1966, where she met and married a musician/songwriter named Don Chapel. She got her first recording contract that year and her stage name was changed from Wynette Byrd to Tammy Wynette because someone thought she looked like a Tammy. She and Chapel performed together, and her hunger for stardom increased. 

Country music "belonged" to men. With hard work and talent, Wynette, Loretta Lynn, and Dolly Parton slowly but surely turned country into a women's game as well. Wynette had her first chart success in 1967, but her income from singing was small, and the marriage to Chapel wasn't going well. Chapel took nude photos of her and passed them around to other men. Later, he used the photos as leverage against her. Wynette's 1967 marriage to Chapel was annulled in 1968 and true stardom came to her with Stand By Your Man, I Don't Wanna Play House, and D-I-V-O-R-C-E. It was the beginning of 30 million records sold worldwide.

And she met country star George Jones, her idol.

Wynette and Jones had a passionate relationship. They married in 1968. Their duets added to her success and fame, and kept his career alive as his stardom faded because his thirst for alcohol could not be quenched.

Wynette gave birth to their daughter, Tamala Georgette, in 1970. The birth led to an emergency hysterectomy––the beginning of health problems and pain that stayed with Wynette for the rest of her life. Scar tissue constantly formed in her body. She had approximately three dozen surgeries to remove it. It also affected her gall bladder. She began taking prescription pain medications and became addicted.

Marriage to Jones was violent and difficult. One year at Christmas, Jones attacked Wynette and chased her around their house with a rifle. As portrayed in George & Tammy, he fired shots at her and destroyed the Christmas decorations and some of the gifts. When she hid his car keys to stop him from driving drunk, he rode to town on the lawn mower to get his alcohol. He didn't show up for recording dates and performances. Although their touring bus proclaimed them Mr. and Mrs. Country Music and they were referred to in the country music world as President & First Lady, Jones became known derisively as No Show Jones. 

Wynette filed for divorce in 1973. She and Jones reconciled. After a fight, she filed for divorce again. The marriage ended in 1975. Her addiction did not.

Without Jones, Wynette had to develop her own stage show. Her career remained strong, although she hated it when audience members shouted, Where's Jones? She had some high profile relationships, including Burt Reynolds. At times, she recorded with Jones and  performed with him. But in 1976, Wynette married Michael Tomlin. The marriage was annulled later that year.

The following description of events occurs in George & Tammy It is not verifiable fact. Wynette finds nasty graffiti on her front door and becomes fearful. Wynette thinks Jones is behind it, but it's really songwriter George Richey, who wants Wynette to depend on him for safety and security. When Richey's wife, a friend of Wynette's, threatens to tell Wynette what Richey is doing, he beats her. Wynette also doesn't like to inject her dugs. Richey takes over the injections.

Wynette and Richey married in 1978. He became her full-time manager. Her daughters alleged that Richey forced Wynette to perform when she was sick, gave her drugs when she said no, or, alternately, withheld medication from her when she wanted it. She began missing concerts.

In 1978, Wynette reported she had been abducted from the parking lot of a mall by a man hiding in the backseat of her car who strangled her with pantyhose and beat her. Rumors flew that George Jones was behind the attack. Her daughters alleged she staged the kidnapping to cover up for a severe beating she received from Richey.

Although Wynette entered the Betty Ford Center for treatment of her drug addiction, she became ill while she was there and had surgery to remove part of her stomach. Her  addiction continued.

On April 6, 1998, Tammy Wynette died at the age of 55. A blood clot went to her heart. She also had powerful pain meds in her blood. Richey claimed they had been sleeping on adjacent couches all day in the living room of their home and when he awoke in the evening, she had passed away.

Wynette had allegedly made out a handwritten will that included trusts for her daughters and designations of her personal belongings to her daughters. In George & Tammy, Georgette sees the will and so does George Jones. 

Richey said he couldn't find the will. He inherited everything. Richey remarried and when he died, his widow sold many of Wynette's personal effects. In 1999, Wynette's daughters filed a wrongful death lawsuit again Richey, Wynette's doctor, and a company that delivered prescription paid meds to her home. The doctor said he had told Richey to take Wynette to a hospital not long before she died. Yet Wynette's daughters dropped Richey from the suit. What remained of the lawsuit was dismissed by a judge.

Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug