Tammy Wynette's Suspicious Death - The Will: Family Secrets Revealed - S03 EP05 - Reality TV

[Music] the queen of country music  Tammy Wynette dies Suddenly at the age of 55. I will always believe  that her death was not an accident the damn he died the surprise is that she  lived after a lifetime of Anguish she's portrayed once again in death we went there to  expect to hear exactly what Mom had told us and it was not at all what mama told us leaving her  children to wonder why the First Lady Of Heartache continued to stand by her man something was not  right and we had to know what th

e answers were her will got played out exactly how she would  have wished after what they did to her [Music] on April 6 1998 country music star Tammy Wynette  is found dead inside her Tennessee mansion Tammy's friend and former hairdresser Nanette  Nichols Crafton is phoned with the news well they called me and um said Tammy's  died and I went over to the house and it was so so sad that she was just  laying there dead on the sofa Tammy's youngest daughter George head Jones  learns of the tragedy

in the worst possible way the day my mother passed away April 6 1998  I was working as a registered nurse at a local hospital in Alexander City one of the  nurses came and said you need to call home and I said oh my you know what's wrong  with my children are my children okay it's my first thought she then told me  that another nurse friend of mine had seen on TV that my mom had passed away  and I think that I went numb [Music] Tammy's children are devastated by her death  you know still very e

motional still very raw for a long time I couldn't listen to her music  I could not watch anything that she was on it hasn't always been easy having  such a famous mother [Music] talking to one or the other she was gone for  certain pivotal things in our lives and I know it bothered her at the end of the day she  truly loved her family she took care of us and we never wanted for anything the relationship  Tammy had with her own mother was not easy on May 5th 1942 Virginia Wynette Pugh or  Tammy

Wynette as she was later to be known is born to a family of cotton Farmers near Tremont  Mississippi the happy household doesn't last long Tammy's father died when Tammy was just an  infant which had a big effect on Tammy I mean I think the cliche of looking for a father figure  definitely applied to Tammy throughout her life as a teenager Tammy and her mother Mildred's  personalities Clash she was a rebellious child I think my grandmother probably had a lot of  problems with her but I think a l

ot of that was due to her creativity because she was wanting  even at an early age to start her singing career Mildred was very bullheaded and so was Tammy there  was no way anybody was going to tell Tammy what to do even at that age and that that set up a  whole dynamic that I think lasted her old life at 17 Tammy begins dating 22 year old yupel bird  one night after arriving home late from a date her mother hits her in the face with a belt  hard enough to draw blood you bull was older and it j

ust drove Mildred crazy that Tammy  was out with him came home late for dates and after one particular date I guess she got  a walloping and she just said that's it [Music] even though she is only one month away from  finishing High School Tammy decides that the only way to escape her overbearing  mother is to marry you pull [Music] she just needed to get out of there and  getting married was the way she could do it Tammy and yupel have three children together Gwen  Jackie and Tina but the relat

ionship falls apart Marion yupelberg did not make her free  to say the least they had a lot of fights by 1966 after seven years of marriage Tammy takes  her three daughters and moves to Nashville she dreams of becoming a star Tammy was independent  she was gonna do as I say what Tammy wanted to do after knocking on door after door in  Nashville Tammy eventually lands a lucky break finally went to CBS records where that  day the receptionist had taken a lunch break and she just walked in with  he

r guitar walked right into his office and said hi I'm Virginia winnet  Pew and I want a record deal [Music] put it and she came in and pitched him  some songs and uh he heard nothing but something in the back of his mind  said don't turn this chick down she signs a record deal with producer Billy  Sherelle and he changes her name to Tammy Wynette her first single apartment number nine Peaks  at number 44 on the country music charts all of her peers heard that song they all  told me Loretta Dolly

George Jones when we heard that song there was somebody there to  be reckoned with two years later in 1968 she and Sherelle write the song she will forever be  known for if there's a song that is is classic Tammy for better and for worse it is Stand By  Your Man and it really came about by accident Tammy showed up at the recording studio  she recorded two songs and Billy had hired the musicians for another hour and  he said to Tammy says let's go upstairs in my office and write a song they went

up to his  office and 20 minutes later they came back down with Stand By Your Man which went on to be the  biggest selling single in country music history by 1970 a mere four years after signing  her first record deal she's already won two Grammys and three CMA Awards she will continue  to rule the country charts for the next decade well Tammy was the very best she was the  first lady of country music for a reason she was the first female artist to sell over a  million records and that's when t

hey called her the First Lady Tammy's personal life however  is not so Rosy by the time she's 34 years old she has three ex-husbands youthful bird musician  Don chapel and Country Legend George Jones the father of her fourth daughter Georgette Tammy  loved being in love she always was looking for the ultimate love she had to have a man in the  summer of 1976 she decides to try her luck again with real estate developer Michael Tomlin the  marriage is a disaster and she has it annulled after just

44 days with four failed marriages  Tammy decides that the next one has to be for Keeps like my fans won't stand for another divorce  and they go ah yeah they will and they love it when her friend George Ritchie has  been providing a shoulder for her to cry on through her many breakups  their relationship develops into a romantic one and in 1978 she finds  herself saying I do for the fifth time I do remember the day mom came to us and said  uh Richie she called him Richie Richie and I are gettin

g married and I think for me it was  I so wanted mom to be happy so if if Richie made her happy then I was all for it Richie  will change Tammy's life some say for better and others for much much worse you could just  feel that he wasn't right country music star Tammy Wynette believed she has finally found a  man to stand by in husband number five [Music] but is Richie really the knight in  shining armor that she thinks he is George Ritchie born Richardson has been a friend  of Tammy's for years

a songwriter and producer himself Richie's worked with some of country's  greatest like Merle Haggard and Johnny Orton George Ritchie who's a very well respected  person here in the Nashville Music Industry and very accomplished as a musician and a  producer and songwriter in his own right here Richie confesses to Tammy that he is in love  with her and always has been unlike Tammy's other marriages this one sticks she will stay with  Richie until her untimely death 20 years later Sheila Slaught

er Richie marries Richie  three years after Tammy passes away Tammy and Richie had extraordinary relationship it  was inspiring actually the love that they shared was remarkable if Tammy was not happy when her  marriage trust me she would have made sure that she found her way out no one would could have made  her say in that mom spoke in public about how she loved him and he loved her and so it appeared to  be that she finally found that knight in shining armor she always looked for some of Tamm

y's  friends and family however saw a darker side George Ritchie was one of the most controlling  people that I've ever known anything about you could just feel that he wasn't right he  controlled when Tammy saw who and for how long and I tried to stay on his good side all the time  because he had gotten rid of Jan he had gotten rid of Nan he had ostracized her from Gwen he had  pretty much eliminated all of her close friends Tammy's daughters and friends say  that she even tried to leave Richie

I lived just right around the corner from her and  I drove up actually and she was sitting on her suitcases in my driveway [Music] she came inside  and she said I'm I'm going to leave him and I was ecstatic I said okay you can stay here and then  as she stayed I think she got frightened because I remember her telling me many many times that he  would would always tell her you're nothing without me those close to Tammy actually insist that her  heart belonged to another her third husband George

Jones they were married for six years before they  split I believe after talking to so many people in Tammy's life George Jones was the love of her life  remain so till her dying day she just couldn't live with him during her marriage to Richie  Tammy's Health rapidly declines plagued with intestinal problems from an early age she goes  under the knife many times throughout her life Tammy had 32 or 33 stomach surgeries one of  which I think maybe the second last of which she was in surgery for s

omething like 12 hours  and she had I think eight or nine inches of scar tissue that they had to cut through to get to the  problem while only in her mid-50s she appears aged and frail after being estranged from Tammy for  a period of time friend Janine Nichols Smith is surprised by her altered appearance just I  couldn't believe what she looked like my beautiful girl was just she didn't even look like Tammy  Wynette anymore she looked all Hollow and skinny and frail and vulnerable she just look

ed like  if you touched her real hard she'd crumble apart her constant illnesses forced hammy to realize  her time is short she always was prepared to die she always was that was something  that that she had been taught and had foreign had come to grips with early in her life  and so at any point she was ready for God's plan for her the lesson is brought home when you  pull bird the father of Tammy's three eldest daughters dies suddenly in a car crash in 1996.  Tammy calls all her children as we

ll as Richie's son and daughter together that very night for  a meeting my mom had signed a new will and she told all six of us that she wanted us to meet  with her and Richie and discuss what was in it Tammy tells them she has taken out two one  million dollar life insurance policies one was to go to Richie it was for a million dollars and  one was to be split between the four of us girls we at that time of course we we told her  we really didn't want to hear about all those details you know bu

t she insisted  that she wanted to tell us everything so she continued to explain that the house and  the business and everything else that mom had such as her Awards and things like that all of  those things would be kept together that Richie would own those until he passed away and then at  that time everything that was left then would be divided between the six of us children his two  kids and the four of us girls Richie only spoke up at the very end to explain that the will had been  signed

it was filed it was Final and that now that they had made us aware that he wanted all of us to  understand that the will could never be contested Tammy also tells the girls which of her personal  possessions she wants to leave them saying that she has written each name and item down on a  yellow legal pad my mom almost I would have to say to a degree was somewhat obsessed with that  legal pad I think it really worried her that one of us would feel left out somehow or someone  might feel like som

eone else got something more and then she also had this horrible feeling  that the riches were gonna get all her stuff and her children weren't going to get anything  so she was going to fix it Tammy even starts writing their names on pieces of masking tape  sticking them to various items around the house maybe there was a an oriental rug or there  was a China set or a fur coat or something like that of that nature she would take little  pieces of tape and stick it to the item write initials on

there and then for her she would  go back and write everything down on the pad so that she could keep things even as she  added things new less than two years later Tammy Wynette dies inside her Tennessee Mansion  but her death is not reported for several hours and I'll tell you what has infuriated me  over the years is so much was said about well he didn't you know pick up the phone and do  this he didn't do that and I want to say to them where's the owner manual when okay I've found my  spouse

dead on the couch what are the steps I'm supposed to take now you don't know what you would  do when you find someone Your Love dead beside you although he doesn't call 9-1-1 Richie does pick  up the phone to call Tammy's personal physician Dr Wallace Marsh in Philadelphia and asks him  to fly to Nashville it's a decision that will later seem suspicious I think Richie just hid it  from everybody until he thought he could get Dr Marsh here so that Dr Marsh could pronounce her  dad [Music] when h

er daughter Jackie arrives on the scene hours later she's surprised to find  her mother's body still curled up on the couch I didn't want to look at her I am I did not want  my last memories of her to be I like that I did not look at her face I just remember turning  my face and touching her when Dr Marsh finally arrives later that evening he determines that  Tammy has died from a blood clot in her lung three days later 1500 people including some  of country music's greatest artists gather for h

er funeral in Nashville when Tammy when  had passed the country Community was really devastated in fact CNN covered her funeral live it  was the who's who of the country music community afterwards Gwen Jackie Tina Georgette and  Tammy stepchildren Kelly and Deirdre gather at a lawyer's office to hear the reading of Tammy's  will and they're about to get the shock of their lives they weren't just Tammy when it's riches  they were George Ritchie and Tammy Wynette's riches country music legend Tamm

y Wynette has  died suddenly at the age of 55. her daughters Gwen Jackie Tina and Georgette have gathered  to hear the reading of their mother's will on the day the reading of the will my sisters and  I and Deirdre and Kelly Richie's two children went together Richie which we felt odd at the time I  stayed at home he didn't come to the reading of the will the lawyer states that her husband Richie  and his brother Carl have been appointed the trustees of the will and the estate as co-trustee  he

had the power to distribute income money earned by the trust property and principal the actual  assets of the trust the girls are not happy about this they feel that someone from Tammy's family  should have been appointed a co-executor my sister Tina just totally reacted defensively she  just kind of stood up and said this is crap and um you know the rest of us like I said my my  sister Georgia and my sister Gwen basically kind of just sat there in a daze Tammy's children  listen as the will goe

s on to state that ten thousand dollars has been left to each of the  grandchildren and that the house all personal property and control over her business assets are  to go to Richie no money is given to her children we went there to expect to hear  exactly what Mom had told us and it was not at all what mama told us at this  point Tammy's children still assume that they will be inheriting one of their mother's  one million dollar life insurance policies after the meeting they're asked to stop b

y  Richie's house he tells Tammy's daughters that they must sign an affidavit confirming the  Will's authenticity Richie said that we had to sign a form saying that we were agreed on the will  reminding us that if we contested that then upon his death none of us would inherit anything of  Mom's Tammy's will contains a no contest Clause stating that anyone challenging the contents  of her will takes a risk of being disinherited the no contest clause in Tammy's will favored  Richie it forced the c

hildren to accept a will that they didn't think was fair to them us with  the exception of Tina signed it they sign in good faith believing that their true inheritance  Is Yet To Come Richie then tells Gwen Jackie and Georgette that he will give them each five  thousand dollars Tina receives nothing while the other girls consider it an advance of what will  eventually be theirs if we went ahead and signed the waiver he would give us our first distribution  of the money that mom was going to leav

e to us not the full 250 000 a piece per child but he would  give us five thousand now simply because we had to wait until all of the the tax assessment had  been done and then he would distribute the rest still expecting to inherit a quarter of a million  dollars each they are satisfied for the time being but a bigger bombshell is about to drop despite  being told otherwise by their mother before her death they discovered they were not in fact named  as beneficiaries of either life insurance po

licy Tammy's will left everything to Richie she  left all her personal property to Richie then she left everything else all the  significant assets the royalties copyrights and other life insurance all the other  assets too Richie in trusts I don't know what happened to the insurance policies  that's the uh you know 24 question other than I'm assuming Richie received his portion and  then from what I understand was the second life insurance policy went into the Virginia  Richardson Trust Gwen co

nfronts Richie wanting to know why they weren't named like their mother had  promised Richie claims that Tammy changed her mind Richie later told me that they had been told that  they were going to get you know a life insurance policy but I know from my own experience I mean  I've changed my own personal life insurance many times so Tammy probably decided to change it  the will states that the money can be used to provide for and support her husband any leftover  money could be paid at Richie an

d his brother's discretion to the children it's not common  when you have children from a prior marriage you give your spouse that much power and access  to the trust money because you are setting up a situation where that spouse is not going to want  to spend money for his stepchildren Richie tells the girls that he will decide what money they  get at a later time Richie had a lot of power over all the Assets in those trusts he was the  trustee he was the beneficiary as long as he lived he had

no obligation to give any assets  to the daughters during his lifetime they weren't just Tammy Wynette's riches they  were George Ritchie and Tammy Wynette's riches they built it together George Ritchie was a wildly  successful music executive he was President of Capitol Records I mean you just couldn't get  or find a better producer or writer or piano player he was as equal to her so to say that  George Ritchie wanted Tammy's riches as a total insult and you can see that that's not the way  it

really was to top it all off the yellow legal pad the list Tammy it painstakingly made detailing  each daughter's intended possessions goes missing Richie's explanation to no list  being found was that oh honey you know I don't know where that list is  and your mom changed it all the time so there was no list filed with the will so  therefore we never received any items at all not our baby books not anything that my grandmother  left to our mom for us um essentially everything that my mom had cl

othes personal items of all  kinds including things of ours my sisters and I none of those things were given to us I know  that there's been a lot of question of where was this list of things that Tammy wanted to  give out and he told me that she wrote them out not daily but constantly she get mad at this kid  and it would you know they would be scratched off you get mad at this kid I mean she was constantly  revising it for Tammy's daughters the change in their mother's will is upsetting but as

they learn  more details about her death they soon have even bigger concerns mom had been doing so much better  and and we we were just really shocked that it had happened then and we we couldn't figure out  why we'd ask questions with you know with family and of Richie and of the doctor that cared for my  mom but instead of getting answers it seemed like we just had more and more questions something was  not right and we had to know what the answers were did Tammy Wynette actually die from nat

ural  causes Dr Marsh stated in my office had Tammy Wynette been taken to the hospital the night  before she would be alive today country music Superstar Tammy Wynette has passed away at the  age of 55. suspicious about the events surrounding their mother's death Tammy's daughters begin to  question if it really was from natural causes September 1998 hoping to gain public support  in their quest for the truth behind their mother's death one of her four daughters Jackie  airs her frustrations in

a tabloid interview I contacted Star Magazine after mom's death  particularly because I felt like we weren't getting anywhere I wanted people to know what had  happened I wanted them to know what happened the night mom died in the article Jackie states that  she and her sisters questioned the circumstances surrounding their mother's death and that  they want an autopsy performed on the body but not everyone believes Tammy's  daughter's intentions are so honorable well I think you could see their

credibility  by the news outlet that they chose to bring their story to I mean the Star Magazine isn't  the most honorable place that I would start if I really believed something had happened  legitimately to my mother I don't think they're guilty of anything except being loving  children that were devoted to their mother and if there's one thing that Tammy wanted to  do was to provide for her daughter nowhere do I see anything by Tammy saying you know I  want my daughter screwed out of my fort

une and she had reasons to want to provide  for her family Tammy Wynette struggled with health issues for most of her life people  told me stories of how she would come off stage just clutching her sides and and collapse after  giving her all to the audience because she was in such pain to deal with the pain she begins taking  prescription painkillers I know where it started Tammy was in a lot of pain so this doctor gave  her some Demerol for the pain the doctor said I've called in a prescriptio

n and there's like a  drugstore that was over by a college here I got it in the car and went over and got it and  that was her first shot out of the hospital we were totally innocent about I mean we  didn't know the doctor said do it we did it and that was the very first one Tammy is given  powerfully addictive painkillers like Demerol and dilaudid [Music] she needed the drugs there's  no question about it and the doctors prescribed them I mean she was in pain a bad bad pain and  she endured a l

ot at the same time there were plenty of times where she didn't need the drugs  and she craved him I mean their stories of Tammy jamming a pencil in her ear to get drugs  uh throwing her down herself down the steps to injure herself or at least the  appearance of an injury to get drugs John do wrote Tammy's book John do once said the  surprise is not the damn he died the surprise is that she lived after years of injecting drugs  the veins in Tammy's arms collapse and she begins shooting the drug

s between her toes and later  has a permanent catheter inserted into her back to allow a needle to directly shoot the drugs into  her bloodstream [Music] Tammy was full of of drugs legal drugs drugs that he had given  her drugs that Dr Marsh had prescribed but a lot a lot of her said and versed is  a hypnotic and even before the needle is finished depressing you'll be out you wouldn't  be able to give yourself a shot of versed it would be very unusual if you were  able to I can't even as a nurse

give that medication on my own but yet Richie  was giving this to my mom in her IV at home I didn't actually realize that mom  had even any kind of a drug issue until I was married she she covered it up  so well but that's what addicts do I guess some of Tammy's friends and family say her  addiction is fueled by her controlling husband but others paint Richie is a caring husband  someone who would do anything to help if you were sick there's nobody that she would have  wanted on your team more

than George Richie when you were sick or when you were down  he was at his very best he was a love at that he was better at that than anything being  an addict is starting to hurt Tammy's reputation and the topic of rehab is brought up with her  friend Janine Nichols Smith Tammy and an hour in this hotel across the hall from each other  we could open our doors and talk to each other and our doors were open and she said Jan  come over here I want to have a serious talk with you in the house go ov

er and pop in  bed with her and I'm like what's up she said people in Nashville think I'm a drug addict  [Music] been a little bit in the newspaper about she was high on something besides Country  Sunshine and I said yes Tammy they do [Music] said yes we do need to fix it oh  my God here it is here's the chance and I had it man we're ready we were  ready to go we were ready to go to rehab Ed Yarborough Tammy's daughter's  lawyer says the family tried to help there was an attempt at least once ma

ybe more than  once for the family to intervene and see if she could be weaned off of the powerful painkillers  Mr Richie was not totally Cooperative with that Tammy enters the Betty Ford Center but  after a three-week stay she collapses from a life-threatening bowel obstruction  and undergoes a surgery to remove a quarter of her stomach it's not long before  Tammy is back on the painkillers Sammy's daughters tried to stand by  their mother they tried to help her but you've got to understand Tam

my was hard-headed  she didn't want the help I mean it has to be said she had many shots at having people help her  get off drugs in the end she didn't decide to do it her daughters believe drugs were the real  reason for their mother's death but with Millions at stake who stands to gain from covering it up  they formally request an autopsy to be performed on their mother's body but it gets dismissed by  the medical examiner the Tennessee law has always given the attending physician or the famil

y  physician quite a bit of latitude in terms of filling out a death certificate and deciding  whether an autopsy is necessary in this instance Dr Levy who was the medical examiner for Nashville  at the time he stated that he was satisfied with the explanation the doctor gave and saw no  need for further investigation I think Richie didn't want an autopsy perform because he knew  that they would find something in Mom's system he was very smart in that respect George Ritchie  was never asked the

questions the questions came when he found out about it on the news just like  you and I they pointed their questions you know to the tabloids so he didn't know that there were  questions he didn't know they wanted an autopsy I mean it all came as a surprise to him determined  to have an autopsy perform Tammy's daughters look for new ways to keep the pressure on we had  hired a private investigator who had found a lot of information for us Richie never called  9-1-1 after he found Mom it wasn't

until many hours later when the family attorney arrived that  he called 9-1-1 many hours later the investigator showed up they in fact in the corner asked for  a full listing of Mom's medications and both the doctor via telephone on the airplane verified  mom's medications and Richie verified mom's medications both of them left off the fact that  she had been prescribed and been given regularly IV Dilaudid I've ever said and IV Phenergan having  denied those medications the coroner felt no need

looking at the other magic occasions to do a full  autopsy Richie in fact when he asked when asked if he wanted one just for the Peace of Mind of  knowing what actually happened he refused autopsy and in fact very quickly wanted mom's remains  to be prepared and ready for funerals equipped with this information on April 5th 1999 one day  before the first anniversary of their mother's death the girls file a 50 million dollar wrongful  death lawsuit against Richie and Tammy's personal physician Dr

Wallace Marsh we hired Ed Yarborough  basically begged him to you know listen to us and and just let us know if he felt like there was  anything you know that we could do he looked at the paperwork we gave him he looked at everything  and and felt like we had something Dr Marsh flies into Ed Yarborough's office from Pennsylvania  with two lawyers to fight off the wrongful death lawsuit they came I believe to try to talk  us out of filing the lawsuit so we spent about two hours or so one evening

in my conference room  primarily listening to the doctor and his lawyers give us all the reasons why he was not responsible  for the death of Tammy Wynette instead Dr Marsh ends up giving Ed Yarborough more ammunition  than he had to start with what they actually did was provide a lot of evidence against the doctor  because it was then pretty much admitted that he was sending Dilaudid and verse said to Tennessee  by way of airplane and it was also admitted that he had not been present when her

symptoms had  become worse the night before Mr Richie and Dr Marsh talked and Dr Marsh had suggested that that  she might need to go to the hospital that opened up the possibility that the failure of Mr Richie  to follow the doctor's advice if indeed that was the advice might have been a causative factor in  her death the issue here is that when Dr Marsh stated in my office that had Tammy Wynette been  taken to the hospital the night before she would be alive today that was a statement that was 

new information to us and probably to Mr Richie as well Richie finally agrees to an autopsy but  after a year the results come back inconclusive there was actually two different conclusions  the coroner said that it was unknown because one of the of the results from a lab came  back saying that there was Versed and Phenergan in her system and then other tissue samples that were  taken showed that there was nothing in her system you can't get drug levels and things like that  months after the de

ath so the autopsy resulted in the cause of death of cardiac arrhythmia  basically her heart stopped and that's not a very specific finding it's it's kind of a catch-all for  situations where you can't be sure what caused the death the daughters drop Richie from the lawsuit  and agreed to resolve the case with Dr Marsh for an undisclosed amount from a legal standpoint  we felt he had to be dropped from the lawsuit at that point because there was no longer any basis  for saying that his failure t

o take her to the hospital was a cause of her death I believe  George Ritchie got very poor legal counsel in that suit you know instead of standing up going  wait a minute you know you can't sue me for this I didn't do anything you know come back stand up for  yourself I mean I was just furious with him for it it would never have brought Mom back obviously  I would certainly much rather have Mom here than whatever we got from the wrongful  death suit but it was our way of saying you know you kno

w having people listen to us and  letting people know that we're not crazy after all meanwhile Richie Mary Sheila Slaughter a TV  producer 30 years his Junior in 2001. Tammy's daughters are less than thrilled with the Union  I don't think it was me personally I think that anybody that would have been in my position they  wouldn't have liked for the most part the couple stay out of the public eye for the next nine  years but then Richie's Health starts to decline Richie suffered for many years wi

th COPD with  emphysema which is certainly not a disorder that is Pleasant by any means he certainly did not have  a peaceful easy way out of this world when George Ritchie dies on July 31st 2010 Tammy's daughters  feel certain that they'll finally inherit the money and personal items they feel entitled  to but little do they know that the biggest shocks are yet to come when Tammy Wynette's  daughters Sue George Ritchie for 50 million dollars and basically called me an accomplice  that's pretty

much a game changer when Tammy Wynette's fifth husband dies her daughters expect  to finally inherit what they feel they deserve when Richie passed away I thought okay now maybe  things will be okay maybe we all can get back to normalcy and and life will be okay my sisters  and I expected that upon the passing of our stepfather that both his two children and the  four of us would then inherit the rest of Mom's belongings and what was her name her likeness  image everything that was related to he

r business all of those things then would be divided between  the six of us but what Tammy's daughters don't know is that Richie ran up expensive hospital  bills while he was sick and he used Tammy's estate to help pay for the treatments apparently  there is a clause that says if for some reason if he lives much longer and he becomes very ill at  some point in his old age where he's unable to care for himself medically and unable to care for  himself financially then it would be acceptable for h

im to sell off things if he needed to in  order to pay for his medical care they didn't see George Ritchie for 12 years so they had no  idea the life that he was living how difficult his life was his health problems you know they  never came to see him one time in a hospital he had many many bills to pay and you know medical  expenses so they would have no knowledge of that he was the beneficiary as long as he lived he  could take all the income from those assets he could take any principle from

those trusts  as long as he had a need for his health his education his maintenance and support the words  on the page of the will still spoke still stand but they only say if there are any assets in The  Trusted Richie's death then those assets go in equal shares to Tammy's four kids and Richie's two  children there were no assets to pass at that time while there's no money left in the truss the  girls are still hopeful to regain control over their mother's song catalog and her business  until

they discover that that too is gone then we found out that Richie prior to his death  had sold off everything about five months before he passed away they sold everything for Two  Plus million mom's full catalog everything she'd ever written everything she'd ever  done her name likeness image all of her business assets everything that was left that  he hadn't already spent was then sold we were screwed when mom died and then we found out  we were basically screwed when Richie had died um so it

was a double whammy Tammy's daughters  also learned that before Richie's death he donated many of Tammy's personal items to the Country  Music Hall of Fame those items were not Tammy's girls items they were George Richie's and he did  not want them to end up on eBay she was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame the highest  honor that any artist could have so why not have her things in a elegant beautiful honorable  situation that where she could be safe and Richie wanted he really wanted t

o try to make things  right Tammy's daughters tell a different version of what happened though the Country Music Hall of  Fame won't confirm either side of the tale after the one year exhibit at the Country Music Hall of  Fame everything was then going to be shipped back to Sheila so we were able to stop that it's still  being held in the warehouse there at the Country Music Hall of Fame which I'm I would much rather  it be there than in her hands at some point we are hoping that those things th

en will come back  to the six of us and George Richie's will neither Tammy's daughters nor the two children he had  prior to his marriage to Sheila are left anything so he felt in his heart that he had done all  that he was responsible to do for those children um he was disappointed in his career he didn't  have the amount of money that he had expected to have when Tammy Wynette's daughters sued George  Ritchie for 50 million dollars and basically called me an accomplice and ruined his name and 

in his career that's pretty much a game changer I don't think you could have expected that man  to wrap up a beautiful will and leave what was left of his life with a pretty bow on it and  say here girls thank you for the nice life that you allowed me to have a year after  Richie's death his daughter Deirdre Hale an attorney asks Tammy's daughters for permission  to change the name on Tammy's tomb Deirdre says it will help in any future legal challenges the  daughters may make against George Ri

chie's estate explained to us that for legal reasons she felt it  important to change mom's name to her legal name which we assumed she met her maiden name which  would be Virginia winnet Pugh she explained to us it would be a temporary measure once this was over  then we would be able to change mom's name back instead the tomb reads Virginia Richardson her  legal name when she was married to George Ritchie why she would do something like that is be Beyond  a ction be against everything that Tam

my would have wanted and that I know for a fact George  Ritchie wanted the name change fails to help Tammy's daughters in any way instead it seems to  keep her another step further from her daughters Tammy Wynette loved being Tammy Wynette she's  not even Tammy Wynette they even took that away from her I it she must be turning in a grave many  people are still trying to understand why she did not name her children as the beneficiaries on her  life insurance policy Tammy should have left that one

million dollar policy originally payable to  her children that way they would have got that million dollars straight up at her death and  without Richie being able to take it from them I know damn good well when she signed that well  she thought it was a contract I'd swear my hand on the Bible she did not read that will she  didn't know what was in that wheel he was 35 long I think it's important that people know that Tammy  loved her children very much and her grandchildren and wanted to see t

hat they had a legacy from  their grandmother we all knew what Tammy's plans were for the children in her will and she  was very excited that she thought she had worked this out I don't think she would have ever signed  that if she had understood what she was signing still there are others who hold Tammy accountable  for her actions she used to talk about in interviews I want to make sure my daughters  are taken care of well at the end of the day it didn't happen it just didn't happen and Tammy 

has to Bear some responsibility in that because uh she was an adult she could have done other things  everybody blames Richie you know and there's a lot to blame Richie for you know uh you could fill  10 volumes but uh you gotta look at Tammy too she just wanted somebody to make the world  go away and Richie did what she wanted he made the world go away and uh you have to  hold Tammy responsible for for for her life we can't go inside that room where Tammy met  with her attorney when she wrote

that will it's clear from reading the will that at that  time she was more in love with Richie than she was her children or she was more concerned  with Richie's Financial Security over the rest of his lifetime than she was with the Financial  Security of her children I know without question Tammy's first priority was George Ritchie and  George Ritchie's first priority was Tammy Wynette that's how it was I saw Tammy I watched her with  Richie I know how protective she was over him her will was c

arried out to the letter how she  would have wanted it after what her children did to her after she died now I'm a very compassionate  person they've never reached out to me in kind if they had they would have gotten a very  different response Tammy's daughters insist that all they are really looking for is  their mother's wishes to be respected we didn't want anything from Mom all we wanted was  what mom wanted we we just wanted her last wishes to be honored and to find out what really happened

  to her so that she could rest in peace [Music] while Tammy Wynette was not able to leave a part of her legacy to her children  she lives on through her music Tammy will not truly changed the face of country  music there have been many female artists with famous female artists who have covered some of  Tammy's songs but nobody nobody can sing like Tammy Wynette nobody has a voice no one can match  Tammy's vocals no one can match Tammy's Style many have tried many have done  Justice to what Tamm

y's done but nobody nobody will ever take her place [Music] foreign foreign