On this day in 1968, George Jones and Tammy Wynette set Nashville a buzz with news of their relationship—the public awakening of a spark that ignited one of country music’s most passionate and turbulent unions.
Some reports say the couple got engaged that day. Others say they didn’t—they just announced an engagement to give the relationship validity. A few others indicate that Jones and Wynette actually got married in private that day before a public event six months later. Without pulling official public records, it’s impossible to know for sure. But what is indisputable is that on August 22, 1968, Jones and Wynette made a public declaration of dedication that changed the face—and sound—of country music forever.
February 16, 1969, is the widely accepted day that Jones and Wynette wed in Ringgold, Georgia. The path that led them there was as turbulent as the path that continued throughout their marriage.
The couple were married from 1969 to 1975 and had one daughter, Tamela Georgette Jones. Jones’ substance abuse problems heavily contributed to their divorce.
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George Jones and Tammy Wynette Meet
Wynette and Jones first met in a Nashville recording studio in 1968. At the time, Wynette was married to her second husband, Don Chapel, a hotel clerk and part-time songwriter. She had already been through one marriage to construction worker Euple Byrd, with whom she had three daughters: Gwendolyn, Jackie, and Tina.
Jones made friends with the couple, toured with Wynette, and got to know her daughters. However, in his 1996 autobiography, I Lived to Tell It All, Jones said that was when he fell in love with her.
“I loved her from the start,” he admitted years later.
His feelings came to a head one night when Wynette got home from a show. She arrived to find her daughters sick with food poisoning and took them to the hospital. Jones showed up before Chapel.
According to accounts reported by People, there was a heated confrontation.
“What’s it to you?” Chapel asked Jones.
Jones didn’t flinch. He said: “I love Tammy … and she loves me, too. Don’t you, Tammy?”
She agreed. That night, she and her daughters left the hospital with Jones.
Jones reported a separate story in his 1996 autobiography, I Lived to Tell It All. He wrote that he joined Wynette, Chapel, and her children. Chapel began insulting Wynette, and Jones flipped over the dining room table, saying he loved Wynette. Jones said that Wynette and her three daughters left with him and never looked back.
George and Tammy: Differing Accounts
Wynette ended her marriage with Chapel and married Jones on February 16, 1969, in Ringgold—the same town where Dolly Parton wed Carl Dean three years prior.
Wynette and Jones started calling themselves “Mr. and Mrs. Country Music,” a title they emblazoned on the side of a $100,000 twelve-bed bus they used to tour across the country playing shows.
With the success of “Stand By Your Man,” Wynette’s career climbed as Jones continued to deliver the tried-and-true country classics for which he was known.
Jones got lost in alcohol and cocaine abuse while the pair were recording songs together in 1971—songs including “We’re Gonna Hold On” and “The Ceremony.”
Wynette filed for divorce the first time about two years later. She later told People it was a ploy to hard-shock her husband out of alcoholism. They reconciled one month later.
In 1975, Wynette filed for divorce again—and this time she meant it.
“I drank a little more than I should even though I hated my daddy for drinking,” Jones told People in 1977. But he added, “Our tempers flared before we could find the time to talk about what was bothering us.
George Jones: “I Drank a Little More Than I Should”
However, the end of their marriage did not signify the end of their recording career together. They released “Golden Ring” the same year they got divorced. They even continued to tour together for a while. Wynette married producer George Richey, and Jones wed his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado.
Jones and Wynette started working together again in the 1990s, teaming for a final duets album and joint tour.
“More than anything in the whole business, I missed the duets with George,” Wynette said, according to People. “I’ve sung with a lot of artists, but there’s something about George and me that makes our voices blend.”
Wynette died in 1998 after suffering a blood clot in her lungs. She was 55.
“I am just very glad that we were able to work together and tour together again,” Jones said in a statement. “It was very important for us to close the chapter on everything that we had been through. I know Tammy felt the same way. Life is too short. In the end, we were very close friends, and now I have lost that friend. And I couldn’t be sadder.”
Jones died 15 years later in Nashville.
(Photo by Brian Rasic/Getty Images)
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