Tammy Wynette
#
131
Ranking
Hall of Famer
BIRTHDATE
BIRTHPLACE
Itawamba County
,
MS
,
USA
55
5
'
2
"
DIED
Tammy Wynette was a Mississippi-born country legend who rose from picking cotton and cutting hair to become the "First Lady of Country Music," recording 20 number-one hits including the best-selling female country single of all time "Stand By Your Man," while her volatile marriage to George Jones produced some of the most emotionally charged duets in country history and became the subject of a celebrated television drama nearly 25 years after her death in 1998.
Current Tour & Setlist
Tammy Wynette continued performing through the 1990s and reunited with George Jones for a final recording and tour together in 1995 before her health declined sharply. She passed away in her sleep at her Nashville home on April 6, 1998, at age 55, from a blood clot in her lungs, and is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville. Her life and her legendary relationship with George Jones were the subject of the acclaimed 2022 Showtime limited series "George and Tammy," starring Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon.
Early Life
Born Virginia Wynette Pugh on May 5, 1942, on a farm outside Tremont, Mississippi, Tammy Wynette never knew her father, a guitarist and aspiring musician who died of a brain tumor when she was just nine months old, leaving her to be raised by her maternal grandparents on a farm that straddled the Mississippi-Alabama state line. She picked cotton in the fields from age six to earn money for music lessons, taught herself to play multiple instruments including her late father's piano, guitar, and mandolin, played piano for church services at age eight, and was voted Miss Tremont High before dropping out just before graduation to marry her first husband at age 17.
Career Highlights
After divorcing her first husband and moving to Birmingham with three young daughters, Wynette worked as a hairdresser by day and landed a regular spot on WBRC television's popular Country Boy Eddie morning show, singing before dawn each day before heading to the salon, a grind that convinced her Nashville was her only real shot. In January 1966 she packed her three children into a car and drove to Nashville, where Epic Records producer Billy Sherrill signed her after a single impromptu audition, gave her the stage name Tammy Wynette, and launched her recording career with the 1966 single "Apartment No. 9." The Wynette-Sherrill partnership produced 20 number-one hits including the Grammy-winning "Stand by Your Man," the best-selling country single by a female artist at the time, and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," earning her the title "First Lady of Country Music" and a Country Music Hall of Fame induction in 1998.
Family & Personal Life
Wynette was married five times, to Euple Byrd (1960 to 1965) with whom she had three daughters, to Don Chapel (1967 to 1968), to George Jones (1969 to 1975) with whom she had a fourth daughter, Georgette, in 1970, to Michael Tomlin for just six weeks in 1976, and finally to songwriter George Richey in 1978, who remained her husband until her death. Her marriage to George Jones, dubbed country music's "President and First Lady," was the most celebrated and turbulent of all, producing a string of beloved duets including "Golden Ring" and "Two Story House" even as Jones's drinking and erratic behavior made their home life increasingly dangerous, and her daughter Georgette later revealed that Wynette privately called Jones the love of her life just weeks before she died.
Awards
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