Tammy Wynette Was ‘Down-to-Earth’ and ‘a Typical Mom’ Despite Being Dubbed the First Lady of Country

Tammy Wynette was a superstar, but she was also a working — and sometimes single — mom of four girls who paid a price for her fame. “My friends’ parents had jobs, and my mom’s was just a little different,” daughter Jackie Faye Daly tells Closer. “She was gone quite a bit, so when she was home it was important for me and my siblings to spend time with her.”

The absences weighed heavily on Tammy as well. “Every show, she’d sit alone onstage and sing, ‘Dear Daughters,'” Robert K. Oermann, a columnist at Nashville’s MusicRow magazine and host of the Children of Song podcast, told Closer. “In the autobiographical song, she talked about the guilt she had about having to miss major moments in her girls’ lives. You’d hear women in the audience sobbing.”

Still, Jackie, 63, one of Tammy’s three daughters with Euple Byrd (the first of her five husbands), never doubted her mother’s devotion. Now, she told Closer, “it’s important for us to keep her memory alive.”

Honoring her mom, who died in 1998 at age 55, comes easily for Jackie, who misses Tammy’s playful personality. “When she was home, she loved to bowl,” Jackie reveals, “and she loved amusement parks and roller coasters. I’d have friends over and they’d say, ‘Your mom’s Tammy Wynette!'”

“But it never really dawned on me because she was so down-to-earth. She was just a typical mom who helped us with our homework and loved to cook. Chicken and dumplings were one of her top meals, and she made a killer banana pudding!”

In 1969, Tammy wed fellow country legend George Jones, a year before they had daughter Georgette. They also produced several hits together, including “Golden Ring” and “We’re Gonna Hold On,” and their duets hinted at their often-stormy marriage, which ended in 1975.

There was, sadly, a lot of suffering through the years for Tammy, who endured decades of poor health and struggled to beat an addiction to painkillers. Through it all, though, “she was always a professional,” Oermann insists. “It didn’t matter what kind of shape she was in. When it came time to hit the stage, she did. She was incredibly strong to withstand all her physical agony and emotional turmoil and still deliver a performance every night. She was gutsy and she was a survivor.”

Tammy channeled her heartache into her music, once noting, “The sad part about happy endings is there’s nothing to write about.” That’s why her songs, including her 1968 smash “Stand by Your Man,” are some of the genre’s most popular to this day. For Jackie, however, it’s her mom’s gentle spirit that remains timeless. “I remember her generosity and how she loved to hug people. If she were to meet you today, she’d give you a big hug,” Jackie beams. “There was nothing that was bad about my mom. I miss her smile, her laugh — everything about her.”