Tammy Wynette was born Virginia Wynette Pugh on May 5, 1942, in Itawamba County, Mississippi, right on the Alabama line. Her grandparents raised her on the farm in Itawamba County, and she picked cotton as a child. She was always interested in music and singing, and she went to Nashville when she was twenty to try for a music career. She "met producer Billy Sherrill in 1966," and he helped her get her first hit song, "Apartment #9" (Penman). She had many hit records after that, in fact, she was the first woman in country music to sell a million records (McNett), but her personal life was very rocky. Tammy was married five times. She married her first husband, Euple Byrd, at seventeen....

She met him while still living with her grandparents, and he was a bootlegger. She had three children with Euple, but he did not encourage her singing, so she left him and moved to Nashville. In 1967, she met and married Don Chapel, looking for security for her children Gwen, Jackie, and Tina. He introduced her to George Jones, who became her third husband. "He was everything I wanted in a man,' said Tammy later" (Stodder). They fought a lot, and she finally left him for George Jones. They were married for six years, but Jones' drinking and violence drove her away. They had one daughter, Georgette. In 1976, she met and married a realtor, Michael Tomlin, but they were only…