Truely "The First Lady of Country"
Tammy Wynette
 
       
Virginia Wynette Pugh
Born: May 5, 1942
Died: April 6, 1998

 
 

                    Born Virginia Wynette Pugh, May 5, l942  on a cotton farm in

                      Itawamba County, Miss., and worked in the fields as a child. When Tammy
                      was only 8 months old, a brain tumor killed her father leaving her mother
                      to struggle as a single parent. She was raised on her grandparents' home in
                      Red Bay, Alabama.
                      Tammy taught herself to play a variety of instruments left behind by her
                      father.
                     When she was a teenager, she moved to Birmingham to be with her mother.
                      She later worked at several jobs as a waitress, a doctor's receptionist, a
                      barmaid and a shoe factory worker.
 

                     At 17, she married her first husband, Euple Byrd, and set to work as a
                     hairdresser and beautician, making 180-mile trips to Nashville in hopes of
                     getting discovered as a singer.  The marriage was short-lived, 1959/1965 but it
                     produced three children within three years. Gwen born 1961,  Jackie born 1962
                     and Tina born 1965. By the time her third child was born, the couple were
                     divorced.

                     Tammy's third child had spinal meningitis, hitting her with several expensive
                     medical bills to pay. In order to gain some extra money, she began performing in
                    clubs at night. In 1965, she landed a regular spot on a television program the
                    Country Boy Eddie Show, which led to appearances on Porter Wagoner's
                    syndicated show.
 

                   The following year, 1966 she changed her name to Tammy and moved to
                   Nashville, where she auditioned for several labels before producer Billy Sherrill
                  signed her to Epic Records.

                   In 1967 she married Don Chapel again ending in divorce in 1968

                  Tammy teamed up with George Jones in the late sixties, and their musical
                  partnership eventually led to marriage in 1969 , daughter Georgette born 1970.
                  But their marriage was troubled also and again Tammy found herself divorced
                  in 1975.

                  Quite a bit of bitterness was between the two until in 1993 they were on friendly
                  terms again after Jones paid Wynette a visit while she was hospitalized and on life
                  support due to a bile duct infection.
                  They eventually teamed up for the1995 album One and embarked on a tour.

                  Once again Tammy suffered heartache with a short lived marriage to Michael
                  Tomlin in 1976.

                  Then in 1978 she married George Richey, her present husband, who became
                  her manager.
 

                  Her long career, during which was marred by tumultuous marriages,
                  seventeen major surgeries, an addiction to prescription pills, bankruptcy, shock
                  treatments for depression, and even a kidnapping and a beating. But determined
                  not to let life keep her down. Tammy went on, hitting the charts with
                 "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and "I Still Believe in Fairy Tales," .She had more
                  than twenty number-one hits; was a three-time winner of the Country
                  Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year Award; recorded
                  more than fifty albums; and sold more than thirty million records.

                      Wynette's most recent work included a collaboration with Loretta
                      Lynn and Dolly Parton on the album Honky Tonk Angels, and with
                      the dance group KLF on the hit song "Justified and Ancient." In
                      March of this year, Wynette won a privacy suit against the Star and
                      The Enquirer for publishing stories that she claimed exaggerated her
                      health problems. Wynette alleged that the tabloids obtained her
                      private medical records and then published stories that she was
                      seriously ill. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

              Tammy died in her sleep at her home in Nashville, April 6, 1998
            from a possible blood clot.
                      .
 


Thank you Tammy.
We Love and Miss you.

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