“There’s a tear in every word,” is how longtime record producer Billy Sherrill described Tammy Wynette’s singing. The legendary country star had 17 No. 1 hits, including “Stand By Your Man” and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” all channeled from the pain of her own life.
Virginia Wynette Pugh grew up poor in Alabama, where she married at 17 and trained as a beautician. Even after she became a country sensation, she kept her license — just in case her career petered out. Wynette had five husbands but one passion — singing — and she left the first of her no-good spouses, though pregnant with two children, to pursue her dreams.
Meeting Sherrill in Nashville was her big break; he knew the kind of impact the talented young mother could have. Wynette’s first single, “Apartment No. 9,” was released in 1966. By 1967, she had four singles in the top 10. “Stand By Your Man,” the 1968 hit forever associated with the lonesome Wynette, was a response to the women’s movement.
Sincere in her belief that a husband deserved loyalty, the song wasn’t just political backlash. Surveys showed women ages 22-45 bought 65% of country albums — so Sherrill and Wynette targeted her real-life message to them. She struck a chord with millions of fans nationwide. As McDonough notes: “Tammy took the romantic country ballad and just drove it into the ground. One sad song after another, after another! She was unrelenting.”
Wynette joked that they “spent 20 minutes writing ‘Stand’ and 20 years defending it.” She admitted her “old-fashioned, Southern Baptist upbringing” clicked with the song, though she was already living in sin with George Jones, her soon-to-be third husband when she wrote it.
Her fans understood her torment — both emotional and physical. Felled by stomach problems at an early age, Wynette soon developed a dependency on painkillers — which haunted her for the rest of her life. McDonough says backup singers had to walk carefully on the tour bus to avoid stepping on one of her discarded hypodermics.
Her choice of men was equally toxic. Marriage to Jones made them the king and queen of country music, but he hit her in between hits. Booze, drugs and infidelity ended their six-year union. When drunk, Jones claimed to see ghosts and monsters. High on cocaine, he adopted a Donald Duck voice and wanted to do an album as his duck alter ego, “De Doodle.” With his post-Tammy wife, he put a gun to her head and screamed: “Tell me you don’t believe in God!”
Wynette’s last husband, George Richey, became her manager, producer, gatekeeper and drug supplier. He remains a shady presence who hovers over her controversial death in 1998 at 55. The details are still murky. At the viewing, Richey opened the house to friends and family, leaving her lying on the couch as guests took jewelry off her body.
“I have always gotten everything I’ve ever wanted,” Wynette once told a friend, “but I didn’t get what I needed.”
Tammy Wynette
Tragic Country Queen
by Jimmy McDonough
Viking