What Was Tammy Wynette's Net Worth?
Tammy Wynette was an American country music star who had a net worth of $900 thousand at the time of her death. Tammy Wynette is probably best remembered for her hit "Stand by Your Man." All but three of Wynette's songs released until the end of the 1970s reached the top ten. Songs that took the number one spot include "Take Me to Your World," "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Stand By Your Man," "Singing My Song," and "The Ways to Love a Man." Wynette was coined the "First Lady of Country Music" and is historically viewed as a pioneer for the women in the genre at that time.
Early Life
Tammy Wynette was born Virginia Wynette Pugh on May 5, 1942, in Itawamba County, Mississippi. She was the only child of Mildred Faye and William Hollice Pugh. Sadly, her father died of a brain tumor when Wynette was just under a year old. Her mother left her daughter under the care of her grandparents and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, after World War II to work at a defense plant. Wynette was then raised by her aunt (who was just five years older than her), a self-taught instrumentalist and a crop picker who harvested cotton in the Mississippi fields as a young girl. The home she grew up in had no indoor toilets or running water. Tammy taught herself to play several musical instruments that had belonged to her father before he died. She graduated from Tremont High School, where she was a popular basketball player, in 1960.
Tammy Wynette, portrait, London, 1975. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Career
Tammy initially trained to be a hairdresser in Midfield, Alabama, in 1965, performing songs on the side and making small TV appearances on "The Country Boy Eddie Show" in Birmingham. By now, she had three daughters, and after she left her first husband, she moved her family to Nashville with the goal of securing a record deal and becoming a country star. Wynette signed with Epic Records in 1966 and debuted her first single, "Apartment No. 9", the same year. By this time, her manager had suggested she change her first name to Tammy.
Her second single, "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad," reached #3 on the country music charts. By 1967, Wynette had won her first Grammy for the song "I Don't Wanna Play House" in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance. She went on to release five #1 hits between 1968 and 1969, including "Stand by Your Man," which apparently was written in under 15 minutes by Wynette and Billy Sherrill. The song faced controversy as it was released at a time in the United States when the women's rights movement was beginning to get underway. Initially criticized, it became super successful and reached the top of the charts. It is perhaps the song she is best known for today. It also earned her another Grammy award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. The album that accompanied the song was awarded platinum record status by 1989.
(Photo by David Redfern/Redferns via Getty)
Wynette and singer Loretta Lynn ruled the country charts in the early '70s, and she released several more #1 hits. She also released a number of duets with singer George Jones that reached the top 10 on the U.S. country singles chart, including "We're Gunna Hold On" and "Golden Ring." She ended up marrying Jones, and after a very public divorce in 1976, she recorded "Til I Can Make It on My Own," which reached #1 on the U.S. country singles chart and became her first single in three years to enter the pop charts. It is now considered one of her signature songs and was later recorded as a duet by Kenny Rogers and Dottie West. Their version reached #3 in 1979.
In the late seventies, Wynette's popularity began to wane, but she continued to reach Top 10 status until the end of that decade. A TV movie about her life called "Stand by Your Man" was released in 1981, along with her memoir of the same name. Her chart success officially began to decline in the '80s, although she did continue to have a few top 20 hits around this time. She released "Higher Ground" in 1987, which was a relative success both commercially and critically. In 1988, Tammy released a single called "Beneath a Painted Sky," which featured duet vocals from Emmylou Harris. The tune reached #25 and was ultimately Wynette's final top 40 single. She released "Heart Over Mind" in 1990 to no fanfare but recorded a song with the British band The KLF in 1991 called "Justified and Ancient," which reached #1 in 18 countries that year, giving Wynette a brand new following.
She recorded "Honky Tonk Angels" in 1993 with Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, the three superstars appearing together on an album for the very first time, but the album failed to produce any hit singles. Wynette did a duet with Brian Wilson in 1996, a cover version of "In My Room." She also contributed vocals to the Lou Reed song "Perfect Day" in 1997, and it became a UK #1 hit. Wynette performed her last concert on March 5, 1998. She stepped in for an ill Loretta Lynn.
Personal Life and Death
Wynette's first husband was Euple Byrd. They married before she was 18 years old and just months before her high school graduation. She left Euple while she was pregnant with her first daughter. Euple reportedly did not support her ambitions of becoming a country star. Her second husband was Don Chapel, who she wed in 1967. Wynette was married a total of five times, including a prominent wedding to country music star George Jones in 1969. That union ended in divorce in 1975, largely due to Jones suffering from alcoholism.
She suffered from countless medical problems beginning in the 1970s and ultimately passed away in her sleep on April 6, 1998. Doctors later discovered a blood clot in her lung that likely killed her, though her body would be exhumed in 1999. As a result of a new investigation, the coroner changed her cause of death to cardiac arrhythmia, which brought about a wrongful death suit. The Grammy Award winner is buried at the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.
First Lady Acres
In 1974, George Jones purchased a 9,600-square-foot equestrian estate set on eight acres in Nashville as a present for Tammy. The home, which was built four years earlier, was subsequently named "First Lady Acres." Tammy lived in the home until 1979. Two decades later, the home sold for $1.8 million. In 2016, Scott Underwood, the drummer for the band Train, bought the home for $2.4 million. He listed the home for sale a year later for $5.5 million and ultimately accepted $3 million in October 2017. Here is a video tour:
