Tammy Wynette’s 5th Husband Played the Organ at Her 4th Wedding

Country star Tammy Wynette famously married five times in her 55-year-life, and some of those unions were stronger than others.

By chance, her fifth husband provided entertainment at her fourth wedding, and his wife served as her maid of honor. After their marriages failed and they were married, she explained why she thought the fifth time would be the charm for her.

Tammy Wynette’s first 3 marriages in brief

Wynette had three children with her first husband before leaving that marriage, but not before she received shock therapy. She met her second husband after moving to Nashville but left him and eventually married George Jones.

Jones and Wynette remain one of the genre’s most famous matches. Their six-year union produced one daughter and inspired Showtime’s George & Tammy. However, they had a tumultuous relationship full of ups and downs, including allegations he once chased her with a loaded shotgun.

They divorced in 1975, though they ultimately formed a friendship that lasted until she died in 1998. After their split, fans hoped to see them reconcile as they had before. She was also linked to Burt Reynolds for a while before she was ready to walk down the aisle again with husband number four.

Tammy Wynette said her fifth marriage lasted because she married her friend

After Wynette divorced Jones, she married a man she’d known only a few months. George Richey played the organ at their wedding, and his wife, Sheila, served as maid of honor.

Eventually, both couples divorced, and Wynette and Richey married in 1978, the same year she was allegedly kidnapped. Soon after those significant events, Wynette told The Washington Post she thought her fifth marriage would last because she had married her friend.

“To like somebody to me is as important as being in love with them,” she noted. “Because if they like me and really like what I am and like what I stand for, then they’re gonna love me.”

Wynette confessed that she hated living alone and didn’t like dating. “… It’s not for me,” she shared. “If I’m in love with someone, I don’t want to waste my time with him dating somebody else and me dating somebody else.”

Tammy Wynette’s 5th marriage was her last and the longest

Depending on who you asked, Wynette might have been right about her last marriage. It did last 20 years until she died in 1998. However, her daughters suspected Richey abused her, and they went public with those beliefs after her death.

In Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen, author Jimmy McDonough wrote that the “Stand by Your Man” singer was trapped in her final years. “Trapped in an addiction she couldn’t conquer, trapped by illness that brought on endless pain, and, many insist, trapped in a marriage to manager/husband George Richey that made everything worse,” McDonough explained (NPR).

“She seemed kind of desperate to me,” her drummer Charlie Abdon said. “I think she knew Richey used her a bit. I mean, we all used her a little bit.”