Was Tammy kidnapped?
QUESTION Was Tammy Wynette once kidnapped? A FORMER Mississippi hairdresser who became a country singing superstar, Tammy Wynette (1942-98) had more than 20 No. 1 hits, though she’s still most widely remembered for her signature songs Stand By Your Man and D-I-V-O-R-C-E.
Wynette had a turbulent personal life that included five marriages, the third of which was to country star George Jones.
In the mid-Seventies, she suffered a series of misfortunes. In September 1978 an unknown woman unsuccessfully attempted to kidnap Tamala Georgette — Tammy’s eight-year-old daughter by George Jones (she had three older girls from her first marriage) — from her school.
A week later came Wynette’s alleged abduction. She was climbing into her yellow Eldorado at a shopping centre when, she said: ‘I felt a poke in my side and heard a man’s voice say, “Drive!” All I could see was a brown glove, a lot of hair on his arm and 2in of gun barrel.’
After 20 minutes, Wynette claimed, ‘the man wrung pantyhose so tightly around my neck that it left burn marks’. He then drove for another 90 minutes, beat her and fled in another car. Despite the ordeal and her battered face, Wynette did not interrupt her tour schedule and jetted off to a concert in South Carolina two nights after the kidnapping.
The assailant was never found, and rumours swirled that it was a publicity stunt. Fifteen years ago, her daughter, Jackie Daly, claimed in her book Tammy Wynette: A Daughter Recalls Her Mother’s Tragic Life And Death, that the kidnap was concocted to hide a beating she had been given by fifth husband George Richey.
Richey, also Wynette’s manager, responded: ‘Jackie’s allegations that I abused Tammy are preposterous. To the contrary, I spent 20 years with Tammy, loving her and taking care of her and her career.’
In 2011, Tamala Georgette repeated the claims in her book The Three Of Us: Growing Up With Tammy And George: ‘She did admit to my sister that when all that stuff came out about her being kidnapped in 1978 that she and Richey had had a fight and he had beaten her.
‘He threatened to destroy her life and write a tell-all book, so she decided to stay with him . . . and he concocted the kidnapping story for PR.’
Richey died in 2010, so was unable to defend himself from the claim.
Carla Jones, Llandudno.
QUESTION During the 1964 general election campaign, the Conservatives released a single on a flexidisc. The song was sung by an artist mimicking Opposition leader Harold Wilson. Does anyone remember the words? I HAVE re-visited my copy of the disc Songs For Swinging Voters published by the Conservative & Unionist Party in 1964.
Side one had three tracks: John Citizen, a brief introduction to the election; Nationalisation Nightmare, delivered in a mock Cockney accent; and Four Jolly Labourmen — which satirised Labour’s propensity for public spending and disunity on defence policy. The song went like this: We’re four jolly Labour men all chortling with glee, We’re George Brown, Jim Callaghan, Dick Crossman & Me, Curtailing your liberty and taxing your wealth Meaning George Brown, Jim Callaghan, Dick Crossman & Self. We’ve got some good policies for spending your pence, We all sing in harmony except on defence, Some say to stay nuclear would make us too poor, Meaning, George Brown, Jim Callaghan but the rest ain’t so sure. When you were a little boy and you had to fight, You soon learnt the difference between left and right, But when you’re a Labour man it’s hard to reconcile, The left, right and centre ones still march in single file. We’re four jolly Labour men all chortling with glee, We’re George Brown, Jim Callaghan, Dick Crossman & Me, We’re four jolly Labour men, four jolly Labour men, four jolly Labour men we are, But make me Prime Minister and then ha ha ha.
Side two had three songs: One Man Band, referring to Wilson’s dominance of his party, Poor Old Jo (referring to Liberal leader Jo Grimond), and a reprise of John Citizen, this time exhorting the listener not to vote Labour because ‘man alive, in ’45, they changed it for the worse’. Labour went on to secure an overall majority of four seats.
Michael Gray, Sunderland.
QUESTION Has a computer game been banned in Britain? FURTHER to the earlier answer, unlike Britain, Australia takes a dim view of sex and violence in computer games and has banned titles, including Manhunt (highimpact violence), Reservoir Dogs (graphic violence), Risen (drugs offered as rewards), Saints Row IV (sexual violence and drugs) and Voyeur (sexual dialogue). Many games have also been edited for such as Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto III and Left 4 Dead 2.
Tom Evans, London.