Tammy Wynette

Remembering the first lady of country, Tammy Wynette (May 1998)

Like most country singers of her generation, Tammy Wynette (who was buried Thursday) came from a background of rural poverty and had to work hard for everything she got. And like many country stars of her generation, she also lived out too many of her songs - which in her case meant a lot of abusive relationships and broken hearts. By all accounts, she finally did find a happy marriage. By that time, health problems were making her life difficult in other ways. Wynette underwent numerous  ...

Standing by Tammy Wynette (Sep 2007)

I've been missing Tammy Wynette more than usual lately. I'm not just missing her because she, more than any other artist, was responsible for beguiling me with country music and for starting off this lifelong long affair we've had. And not just because she was taken from us way too early at the age of 55, not just because she had absolutely had the most pure-country, most heartbreakingly beautiful voice ever, or because she had that realness that seems so lacking in modern country - Tammy  ...

Tammy Wynette saved me from being a sheep (May 1998)

By now you've heard many tributes to Tammy Wynette, with people praising her as everything from a saint of traditional values to a proto-feminist. This is understandable. Her career was long and influential, and she represented different things to different fans. I wonder though if I am the only person to whom she represented rebellion and being true to oneself. Burgaw, N.C., the late 1960's. I was 10, and like most 10-year-olds, something of a sheep. I walked and talked and thought like my  ...