Tammy Wynette

Tammy once said: "I spent 15 minutes writing ["Stand by Your Man"], and a lifetime defending it". She was born Virginia Wynette Pugh on May 5, 1942, on her grandfather's cotton farm in Itawamba County, Mississippi. Tammy picked cotton as a child, and as a young woman worked as a waitress, a doctor's receptionist, a barmaid and a shoe factory worker. Shortly before graduating high school, Tammy married high school sweetheart Euple Byrd, an itinerant construction worker who was unemployed more often than not. They were finally forced to live in an abandoned, 60-year-old, 3-room log cabin on a Mississippi farm with no indoor plumbing, no stove and only a wood-burning fireplace for cooking and heat. "Not even the poorest sharecropper would have paid to live there," Tammy noted, but it was rent-free. They had 3 daughters, Gwendolyn ("Gwen"), Jacquelyn ("Jackie"), and Tina. The marriage ended in divorce. Tammy still dreamed of becoming a singer. Then, after a short marriage to singer Don Chapel which ended in annulment, Tammy headed to Nashville to pursue a career as a singer in earnest. As a teenager, her fantasy had been to appear on stage with her singing idol, George Jones.

In 1968, she married George Jones, creating a union that captured the imaginations of country music fans everywhere. For the next 7 years they lived, sang, wrote, recorded and performed in a romantic, stormy, much-publicized relationship.

Tammy received awards far too numerous to list here, some highlights were being named Country Music Association "Female Vocalist of the Year" for 3 years straight, 1968-1970; (she would be inducted into CMA Hall of Fame in 1998).

They had one daughter, Tamala Georgette, born in 1970. Many of Tammy's hits dealt with classic themes of loneliness, divorce and the difficulties of relationships, especially her signature song "Stand by Your Man," which she co-wrote with her producer Billy Sherrill. The beautiful, deeply-moving lyrics of the song go: "Stand by your man / And show the world you love him / Keep giving' all the love you can / Stand by your man". This song has sometimes been misinterpreted, by misinformed people, as meaning a woman should tolerate anything, even abuse, from her man. What it really is, is an affirmation of the vows to love and honor a spouse. Tammy defended the song, in her own words, as "an expression of triumph over adversity". Her recording of "Stand by Your Man" was the biggest selling single in the history of country music. Tammy's releases have made the #1 position in the charts 35 times.

After her divorce in 1975, Tammy was briefly married to Nashville real estate executive Michael Tomlin.

Finally, with singer-songwriter George Richey, she achieved a long-lasting marriage; they were married for 20 years, from 1978 until her death in 1998.

"I've had a wonderful life", she said in a 1991 Associated Press interview. "I absolutely feel I've been blessed tremendously. I can't complain at all". In all, she had 5 daughters and one son.

Found herself in the news in 1992 when First Lady Hillary Clinton declared, on 60 Minutes (1968), that she wasn't idly supporting her husband "like some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette". Wynette objected to the reference and Hillary apologized.

Tammy last performed "Stand By Your Man" on Prime Time Country (1996) on The Nashville Network on March 9, 1998.

Her widower, George Richey, married his girlfriend, ex-Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Sheila Slaughter. Tim McGraw sang at the small gathering. The best man was John Paul Daly, ex-husband of Wynette's daughter, Jackie Daly. 16 January 2001).

The remaining legal challenge resulting from Tammy's death was resolved in a secret, out-of-court settlement between her four daughters and Pittsburgh physician Dr. Wallis Marsh in April, 2002. The family was seeking $50 million, claiming Dr. Marsh mismanaged their mother's case. They also sued the pharmacy, Care Solutions of Nashville, for delivering the painkiller and Wynette's last husband, George Richey, for helping to administer it.

[2006] Archive Audio: "The Tammy Wynette Story" BBC Radio 2, 16th May 2006