Tammy Wynette: A Daughter Recalls her Mother's Tragic Life and Death
Country singer Tammy Wynette died in 1998 after a lifetime of medical problems and an addiction to painkillers. Now Daly, Wynette's second-oldest daughter, has written an account of the singer's troubled life from the perspective of a young woman who helplessly watched her mother fall apart. The memoir begins with the confusing, surreal days following Wynette's death. Daly then backs up, giving voice to the resentment she felt growing up, overlooked by a busy, famous mother who had little time for child rearing. Daly pays scant attention to Wynette's relationship to Nashville's country music establishment and scoots over the singer's rise to fame, choosing instead to focus on the personal problems that plagued Wynette's life and eventually ended it. An over-romantic dependence on men led Wynette to a string of loveless marriages and an increasing lack of control over her career. Recurring abdominal problems, compounded by multiple operations and a demanding performance schedule, left her dependent on feeding tubes and catheters. Most debilitating was her addiction to prescription painkillers (such as the opiate Demerol) that persisted despite several attempts at treatment and intervention. Daly, a loyal daughter, holds her mother's doctor and last husband responsible for not stemming her descent. This book captures the complicated relationship of a daughter to a mother who needed more parenting and guidance than her children did. Unfortunately, the writing is weak, and the tone of desperation that closes the book makes it feel more like a tabloid interview than a memoir. Photos not seen by PW. (May)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.