Occasionally, I do book reviews for Reading Local: Portland. The latest book I reviewed was Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen, by local Portland author Jimmy McDonough. The review can be read at the Reading Local: Portland website: http://bit.ly/bLJYdO.
Mention Tammy Wynette’s name, and like me, you probably think of her most recognizable (and controversial) hit, Stand By Your Man, or of Hillary Clinton’s scathing comment about her in January 1992, while being interviewed about Bill Clinton’s extramarital affairs, on 60 Minutes: “I’m not sitting here, some little woman ‘standing by my man’ like Tammy Wynette,” Hillary said.
Whether you care for her music or not, you just have to admire someone like Tammy, who rose from poverty to make her way, against all obstacles, into the totally male dominated world of country music in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
