Tammy Wynette Lacked Self-Confidence Despite Her Fame, Friends Said: ‘She Never Knew She Was Tammy Wynette’
As a legendary country music star, some might guess that Tammy Wynette was self-assured or even arrogant. However, friends and family said she was humble to the point that she lacked confidence sometimes. Despite her iconic fame, some who knew the “Stand By Your Man” singer said she “never knew she was Tammy Wynette.”
Tammy Wynette found fame as a ‘tragic country queen’
Wynette was born Virginia Pugh in Mississippi and married for the first time before she graduated high school. She was a hairdresser with dreams of being a country star, and she eventually left her first marriage and moved to Nashville.
By her mid-twenties, Wynette had built a successful music career after touring with Porter Wagoner (Country Music Hall of Fame). She released a string of country hits in the late ’60s, including “Stand By Your Man,” which also landed on the pop charts.
Wynette’s unique voice paired perfectly with songs about heartbreak, earning her nicknames like “tragic country queen” and “first lady of country.”
Jimmy McDonough, who wrote the aptly-titled biography Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen, summarized her signature style. “I have a theory that great artists learn how to do one thing great. And that’s Tammy,” McDonough said (NPR). “In terms of a slow, sad song, nobody could rip it up like Tammy. She is just unrelenting.”
Friends of Tammy Wynette said she ‘never knew she was Tammy Wynette’
Wynette had millions of adoring fans, including her friends in country music. Along with Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, she was part of the Honky Tonk Angels. And Parton once said, “I was in awe of her. I thought she had one of the greatest voices of all time.”
“I could not believe that all of that voice and all that sound was comin’ out of a person standin’ totally still. I’d think, ‘How is she doin’ that?’ It seems like you’d have to lean into your body or bow down into it or somethin’ to get all of that out,” Parton explained (NPR). “I’ve never seen anything like it to this day.”
So, it’s well-established that Wynette was in the same league as other country music superstars. But she didn’t see herself in that light, friends said. Despite her achievements, people who knew her claimed, “She never knew she was Tammy Wynette” (NPR).
Tammy Wynette’s personal life was part of her tragic fame, and her appeal
Fellow icon Reba McEntire once explained how Wynette set the standards for country songs about heartache. She even sang about it in “Tammy Wynette Kind of Pain.”
It’s hard to disagree that Wynette’s personal life made her connection to the songs she sang all the more believable. She married five times between 1959 and 1978, famously to George Jones from 1969 to 1975.
Wynette stayed with her fifth husband, George Richey, for 20 years until her death. But even after she died, there were disputes in her family about what caused her death, how her estate was distributed, and the name on her crypt marker.
