Tammy Wynette

Worked in her family's cotton field as a child. As a young mother, she got her beautician's license in order to support her family, and kept renewing it every year just in case she ever needed to go back to hairdressing. Her first single, 1966's "Apartment No. 9," received the Academy of Country Music's Song of the Year award. Cowrote and recorded "Stand By Your Man" in 1968. The song was in stark contrast to the feminist movement going on at the time and received lots of criticism. She remarked that she wrote the song in 15 minutes, and spent a lifetime defending it. In March of 1998, settled a lawsuit against two tabloids for publishing articles that she said exaggerated her health problems. She died the following month. Nicknamed the First Lady of Country Music and was the first female country artist to sell a million copies of a single album.