Tammy wynette last photo

ByKaren Corday

Tammy Wynette's life was like a country song. She really lived every trope: enduring a tough rural childhood, working as a beautician and dreaming of a better way, finding and losing love, rising to fame and fortune only to die too young. 

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But Wynette's determined, loud presence in country music history set her apart from the clichés. She didn't have the looks or style of other country superstars. In an excerpt from his book Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen, Jimmy McDonough noted that "unimaginative types who don't savor esoteric looks might be dim-witted enough to consider her a tad homely" and described her first appearance at the Country Music Awards thusly: "Only twenty-six, Tammy already seems a bit shopworn. The mountain of makeup can't completely hide the worry, the fear, the dark circles lurking below tired eyes." Her gift was her "atom-bomb voice" th Wynette tammy biography of rory allen!