Another chapter in the life and death of Tammy Wynette has closed with the sale of her house for $1.2 million to a Nashville book publishing executive.
You could consider it the White House of Country Music. Bought by Wynette in 1992 for $422,500, it had been the home of Hank Williams Sr. He bought it in 1949, and Hank Williams Jr. was raised by his mother, Audrey, there.
”Everybody in the business has been there—Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino,“ says Merle Kilgore, Hank Williams Jr.’s manager. ”Audrey had parties all the time there, and all the greats when they were in town would call because they wanted to see the house that Hank Williams lived in. It was the place to be.“
Originally the home at 4916 Franklin Pike was a small wooden structure, but after Williams died in 1952, Audrey began major expansions and renovations.
Kilgore recalls having drinks with Hank Snow by the pool, sitting at a horseshoe-shaped bar with an aquarium top that housed 12-inch goldfish.
”Hank Jr. was about 13 and he would be picking, and I told Audrey, ‘You know, he’s about ready to go out on his own.’ “
Lura Bainbridge, the Realtor who sold the house for Wynette’s husband, George Richey, says the master bath—with its marble and massive sunken tub—is one of the house’s most impressive features.
”For that day and time, this master bath would have been probably like Bill Gates’ house,“ Bainbridge says.
After Williams’ death, Audrey added the garage with upstairs living quarters. That was later moved to the bottom of Music Row and billed as the house of Williams.
Audrey also added an entertainment room with two-story cathedral ceilings, a massive fireplace, and a gorgeous stone wall, in hopes that Williams Jr. would want to remain there as an adult. ”He had just gotten married,“ Kilgore says. ”Of course, they didn’t want to live there.“
Audrey, who had been married to an alcoholic country singing legend, died in the house at age 55. In April 1998, Wynette, who had been married to an alcoholic country singing legend, died in the house at age 55.
Wynette, who divorced George Jones in 1975 and married Richey three years later, continued to expand the house after she bought it. The house is now 12,000 square feet, with seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The logo TW remains on the outside gates.
Her additions include a full beauty salon—she kept her cosmetology license current into the ’80s—and a huge dressing area.
”She loved makeup and she loved hair,“ singer Lorrie Morgan says. ”Her bedroom and bath area looked like a little girl’s fantasy. It was all done immaculately. She had a great sense of humor. It was almost like being in the queen’s palace but yet feeling like you could wear your sweatpants and eat on the carpet.“
One of the more active rooms of the house was the kitchen. Wynette frequently invited her close friend and publicist Evelyn Shriver over in the mornings for freshly baked biscuits, and Morgan was once served homemade chicken and dumplings. ”I can remember just sitting there thinking, this is probably one of the coolest nights of my life, to be sitting at the table just being a girl.“
The house is full of memories, perhaps too many for Richey to bear. It’s as if Wynette is still there, and virtually every wall is covered in Wynette’s gold records, awards, or photographs. ”If you walk in, everything is Tammy,“ a friend says. ”I imagine if he wanted to move on, it would be hard to do in that house. Also, it’s a big house with a lot of upkeep for one person.“
Friends say Richey is talking to auction houses like Sotheby’s to sell many of Wynette’s belongings. Meanwhile, the Nashville publishing executive, who wished not to be named, was expected to move from Belle Meade into the house by June after the sale’s closing.
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