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Published on 04/06/1998 All articles from this issue

An ode to Tammy

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By Clyde Noel

A Side of Clyde

A CD is softly playing in my den, and I'm having a hard time concentrating on a story I'm writing for the Town Crier. The CD is "The Best Loved Hits" by Tammy Wynette. The first lady of country music died in her sleep April 6, while napping at her Nashville home. She was only 55.

Wynette stands as one of the half-dozen greatest female artists in country music. She sang heartbreak tales with a tear in her voice that you could identify immediately. Two of her greatest hits were "Stand By Your Man," and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," and they both rang true in her real life. Wynette was married five times, including a stint with the notorious George Jones - and she probably stood by him longer than she had any right to.

I became a fan of country and western music in the late 1960s when my son spent four years at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The Grand Ole Opry was just down the street, and that's where I first heard Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff, Lefty Frizell and Willie Nelson.

The first country and western artist who appealed to me was Willie Nelson, when he was just another short-haired songwriter.

He sang "Bloody Mary Morning": "She left last night and this is morning, and I might as well start drinking early so I can hurry up and pass out and forget her."

I was hooked. I drank from long-necked beer bottles and listened to country music. Nelson talked that song that really spoke to me.

We saw Wynette when she was married to Jones and singing duets about Jesus. They were billed as the true "King and Queen of Country Music" but the audience wanted Wynette to sing the songs she made popular.

"Sometimes it's hard to be a woman," Wynette would start singing in her signature hit, "Stand By Your Man," and the audience would scream with delight. Her tearful voice and lyrics captured the pain of a woman struggling to be true to a man who probably didn't deserve it.

They also wanted to hear her 1968 recording of "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," in which she sang about a couple who spell out "hurting words" because they want to shield their child from the bitterness of their breakup.

Wynette's songs explained her life. After she divorced Jones, she went on to endure affairs with Burt Reynolds and Rudy Gatlin, had stress-related hospitalizations, the torching of her tour bus and a 1978 kidnapping during which she was held at gunpoint and beaten severely. She came honestly by her nickname, "The Heroine of Heartache."

Wynette continued strong throughout the 1980s with hits like "Crying in the Rain," "I Heard a Heart Break," and "We're Strangers Again," with Randy Travis. During her career she recorded more than 50 albums and sold in excess of 30 million copies. Local C&W stations are playing her songs hourly since her death.

Granted, Los Altos isn't known for its predominance of country music fans. The Echo of Los Altos, with its piped-in country music, is your best local bet for Wynette.

But if you visit any honky-tonk jukebox, chances are you'll find her - that's where her spirit will remain.