title: Tammy Wynette

text: Once arriving in Nashville, Wynette moved into the Anchor Motel while attempting to gain a recording contract. At the motel, she met her future husband, musician Don Chapel. After moving into an East Nashville apartment, Chapel and Wynette put together a road show. For several months, the pair performed in several states including Georgia and Pennsylvania. Chapel also attempted to help Wynette secure a country recording contract with the Musicor, Hickory, Kapp, and Decca labels. However, Wynette was turned down by every company. Nashville producer Kelso Herston helped her arrange a meeting with new Epic Records producer Billy Sherrill. Wynette went into Sherrill's office and pitched him several songs. Sherrill was impressed by her voice and signed her to a recording contract with Epic in 1966.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: On her first recording session, Wynette cut Bobby Austin's "Apartment No. 9". Following this, Sherrill changed her stage name from Wynette Byrd to Tammy Wynette. "You look like a Tammy to Me," Sherrill told her in reference to the film "Tammy and the Bachelor". In October 1966, "Apartment No. 9" was released as Wynette's debut single and reached number 44 on the American "Billboard" Hot Country Songs chart. Although she had a charting single, Wynette still had little income. Sherrill arranged for booking agent, Hubert Long, to set up tour dates for her. However, many promoters did not want to book Wynette because she was a female performer. "I had begun to realize I was working in a man's world, and most of them looked down on women in the business," she later explained.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1967, Epic released "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad". It climbed to number three on the "Billboard" country singles chart and was Wynette's first chart success. Her debut album of the same name was also released in 1967 and reached number seven on the "Billboard" Country LPs chart. They were followed by a duet with David Houston called "My Elusive Dreams", which was her first number one country single. Its follow-up was the solo single "I Don't Wanna Play House" which topped the "Billboard" country chart in 1967. It later won Wynette the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Her next singles topped the country charts through 1968: "Take Me to Your World" and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E". The latter was her second to make the "Billboard" Hot 100 and also her first to top Canada's "RPM" country chart. The recordings appeared on Wynette's third studio disc, "Take Me to Your World / I Don't Wanna Play House", which reached number three on the Country LPs chart in 1968.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette started touring amidst her newfound success. She was joined by second husband, Don Chapel, and a band called the Countrypolitans. The group featured a drummer, steel guitarist, guitar player, bass player, and background singer. Wynette herself played acoustic guitar on occasion. She toured for the first time internationally in late 1967 to Germany and the United Kingdom. She also did several package dates with Chapel, David Houston, and George Jones. Wynette and Jones began performing "My Elusive Dreams" on the road following an argument with Houston's management. Upon realizing their romantic feelings for one another, Wynette divorced Chapel and married Jones in 1969.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: During this time, Wynette went into the studio to record the single "Stand by Your Man". Reportedly written by Wynette and Billy Sherrill in 15 minutes, the song's emphasis on women standing by their husbands made her a spokeswoman for the working class housewife. It also received criticism from the feminist movement who found it too conservative. "Stand by Your Man" topped the "Billboard" and "RPM" country charts, reached number 19 on the Hot 100 and later topped the charts in the United Kingdom. A corresponding LP of the same name reached number two on the "Billboard" country albums chart.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In the wake of "Stand by Your Man", Wynette received a series of accolades. In 1969, she joined the cast of the Grand Ole Opry and won her second Grammy award. She also won the 1969 Top Female Vocalist accolade from the Academy of Country Music and three back-to-back honors for Female Vocalist of the Year from the Country Music Association (1968, 1969 and 1970). Her 1969 compilation, "Tammy's Greatest Hits", was among the first female country albums to certify gold (and later platinum) by the Recording Industry Association of America. Critics had also taken notice of her music. Greg Adams of AllMusic described the "Stand by Your Man" LP as "consistent" and gave it five stars. Writer Kurt Wolff found her material "from the mid-60's onward" created "a solid female perspective on country radio that the listening public badly craved." Meanwhile, rock critic Robert Christgau found Wynette's "sultry" delivery to have "archetypal power".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette was among the country music's most commercially-successful and popular artists. She followed it with ten more singles that topped the "Billboard" country chart: "Singing My Song" (1969), "The Ways to Love a Man" (1969), "He Loves Me All the Way" (1970), "Run Woman Run" (1970), "Good Lovin' (Makes It Right)" (1971), "Bedtime Story" (1971), "My Man (Understands)" (1972), "'Til I Get It Right" (1972), "Kids Say the Darndest Things" (1973), and "Another Lonely Song" (1973). Most of these songs followed similar themes about housewives attempting to keep their husbands happy or the effects that troubled marriages have on children. Additionally, Epic Records released a series of studio albums by Wynette during this period. Between 1969 and 1970 alone, Epic released six original albums. This included the 1969 gospel LP, "Inspiration", and the 1970 holiday LP, "Christmas with Tammy". Additional album projects featured her number one and top ten singles of the period. Of these LP's, "Tammy's Touch" (1970) topped the "Billboard" country albums chart. "The Ways to Love a Man" (1970), "The First Lady" (1971) and "My Man" (1972) reached the "Billboard" country top five.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Jones and Wynette had been wanting to record together since they married. Although they started touring together in 1969, they could not record together until 1971 when Jones was released from his previous contract. Their first single was a remake of Jones's solo release, "Take Me". In 1971, it climbed to number nine on the "Billboard" country chart and number 12 on the "RPM" country chart. Their first studio LP, "We Go Together" (1971), reached the top five of the "Billboard" country albums chart. Their 1972 single, "The Ceremony", was also a top ten single in the United States and Canada. Altogether, Epic label issued seven studio albums of Jones and Wynette duets. The pair were considered among country music's most successful and well-known duet partnerships. Touring as a packaged duo, they were often referred to as the "President and First Lady". Their tour bus was labeled "Mr. and Mrs. Country Music".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: However, their marriage had several challenges which made their day-to-day life difficult, such as Jones's alcoholism. Jones often missed shows after drinking too much, which increased Wynette's growing frustration with their relationship. The couple's marital problems prompted her to file for divorce in 1973, but the pair reconciled. Shortly afterwards, they recorded the autobiographical single, "We're Gonna Hold On". It became their first song to top the "Billboard" country chart. An album of the same name charted at number three on the Country LPs list. It was followed by the top ten single "We Loved It Away" in 1974. After a fight between the couple, Wynette filed for divorce again. This time however, the pair went through with it and they officially split in 1975. Despite their divorce, they were coaxed back into the studio once more to record the album "Golden Ring". Its title track became the duo's second "Billboard" number one country single, while also reaching number five in Canada in 1976.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Despite her divorce from George Jones, Wynette had to continue her career. However, she had anxiety about doing so. Fans would shout, "Where's George?" during most early performances following their split. "Even though I'd been on stage for eight years, I didn't know how to communicate with the people," she recalled. Previously a packaged act with Jones, Wynette created her own stage show for the first time. She hired the Gatlin Brothers (Larry Gatlin and his brothers Rudy and Steve) to be her road band. She also hired several women as part of her road crew. Wynette included up-tempo gospel songs to energize the audience along with slow ballads that were "extraordinarily intimate," according to writers Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1976, she returned to the top of American and Canadian country songs charts with "'Til I Can Make It on My Own". It was her first "Billboard" chart-topper as a solo artist in almost three years. The song was co-written by Wynette and reflected her life following the divorce. According to Wynette, it was her favorite song she recorded in her career. Her album of the same name reached number three on the "Billboard" country LPs chart. "'Til I Can Make It on My Own" was nominated for Song of the Year by the Country Music Association, while Wynette herself was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year. Her next release, "You and Me", also topped the "Billboard" country chart, while a corresponding studio LP reached the country albums top five. A duet with Jones recorded the year before, "Near You", also topped the North American country charts in 1976.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Several incidents in Wynette's personal life also occurred during this period. These incidents included several short-term relationships, house burglaries, and alleged kidnappings. She also developed health problems that led to a dependence on pain killers. Yet, her commercial success continued. Although none of her solo singles topped the charts, she continued reaching the top ten. Both "(Let's Get Together) One Last Time" and "One of a Kind" reached number six on the "Billboard" country chart in 1977. Through 1979, Wynette had three more solo releases reach the "Billboard" and "RPM" top ten: "Womanhood", "They Call It Making Love" and "No One Else in the World".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Critics and writers highlighted Wynette's music of this period. Bufwack and Oermann observed that her late 1970s singles "took a candid look at modern sexuality". AllMusic's Thom Jurek found 1977's "One of a Kind" LP to evoke the performances of a "true diva" and "country music's reigning queen". Meanwhile, critic Eugene Chadbourne (also of AllMusic) found the musical quality of 1978's "Womanhood" to be mediocre and gave it two-and-a-half stars.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: As the 1980s progressed, Wynette continued having commercial success but with less frequency. In 1980, she reunited with George Jones for the duet single, "Two Story House". It reached number two on the "Billboard" country chart and number one on the "RPM" country chart. However, it also proved to be her final American top five single. The pair also reunited for several shows including a performance at Wembley Stadium and an HBO special. In 1980, Wynette told Billy Sherrill that she was ready to work with a new record producer. "She needed fresh blood, fresh ideas," Sherrill commented in 2010. The final Sherrill-produced album was 1980's "Only Lonely Sometimes". Both singles from the LP ("He Was There (When I Needed You)" and "Starting Over") reached number 17 on the "Billboard" country chart.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Several years prior, Wynette married for the fifth (and final) time to George Richey. The pair previously wrote songs together, but after marrying, he became her full-time manager. Besides business affairs, he also produced several of her albums. Following the Chips Moman-produced "You Brought Me Back" (1981), Richey produced Wynette's 1982 LP, "Soft Touch". The album spawned "Another Chance", which became her first top ten single in several years. Additional early 1980s singles made the country top 20: "Crying in the Rain" (1981), "You Still Get to Me in My Dreams" (1982), and "A Good Night's Love" (1983). Wynette's record sales began to wane in popularity following 1982. Both the albums "Good Love & Heartbreak" (1982) and "Even the Strong Get Lonely" (1983) reached only the "Billboard" country top 60. Wynette's singles also reached progressively lower chart positions following 1982. This included "Still in the Ring" and a cover of John Prine's "Unwed Fathers".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Around 1985, Wynette made changes to her declining career. She hired California-based Stan Moress to serve as her manager. Moress had Wynette cut her hair, change her wardrobe, and incorporate choreography into her shows. Steve Buckingham also started producing Wynette's next album, which was to feature a duet. Although she wanted to collaborate with Merle Haggard, she was instead instead paired with Mark Gray. Gray had left Exile before that band's shift from pop to country, and was beginning a solo country music career of his own at the time. Their result was a cover of the pop song "Sometimes When We Touch". Wynette and Gray's rendition peaked at number six on the "Billboard" country chart in 1985. It became her first top ten recording in four years. The Buckingham collaboration resulted in Wynette's 1985 album of the same name, which charted at number 32 on the "Billboard" country LPs survey. Amidst a commercial comeback, Wynette also faced several setbacks. In late 1986, Wynette entered the Betty Ford Center to treat her addiction to prescription drugs. Two years later, Wynette and her husband declared bankruptcy following several failed investments.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette's longtime label released her next album titled "Higher Ground" in 1987. The second Buckingham-produced project, he described it as "a more rural, more back-home" album. It featured collaborations with Emmylou Harris, Ricky Skaggs, The O'Kanes, Gene Watson, and Larry Gatlin. Bufwack and Oermann called it a "landmark LP", while AllMusic gave it a four-star rating. Despite positive reviews, "Higher Ground" only peaked at number 43 on the "Billboard" country chart. Its singles proved more commercially successful. In 1987, "Your Love" reached the American and Canadian country songs top 20, while "Talkin' to Myself Again" reached number 16 on the former. Following "Higher Ground", Buckingham told Sony Music executives that it was becoming difficult to think of new album concepts for Wynette. This resulted in a temporary end to their professional partnership. Instead, she was paired with producer Norro Wilson for 1989's "Next to You" and Bob Montgomery for 1990's "Heart Over Mind". Singles spawned from both albums reached positions outside the "Billboard" and "RPM" country top 40.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: As Wynette's career entered the 1990s, several new team members were hired to manage her business affairs. This included Epic vice president Mark Martinovich who had to convince the Nashville establishment that Wynette was still marketable. Martinovich had her perform in more diverse settings, including The Bottom Line venue in Greenwich Village. Other new ventures included Wynette recording with British group the KLF. In 1991, they collaborated on the song, "Justified and Ancient (Stand by the JAMs)". KLF member Bill Drummond was a fan of Wynette's and personally called to ask her permission to record the track. Wynette accepted and Drummond helped produce it. Although she had difficulty singing in-time to the track, the song was pieced together by studio engineers when Drummond returned to England. The dance-pop song centering around an imaginary setting called "Mu Mu Land" was considered a departure from Wynette's previous recordings in terms of song choice and production. It became a chart success. By 1992, the single was being routinely played on MTV and reached number one in 18 countries.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1993, Wynette joined with Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton to record the studio album "Honky Tonk Angels". Parton herself explained that she wanted to make the project "before one of us goes". Consisting of classic country recordings performed in three-part harmonies, the album reunited Wynette with Steve Buckingham. Several selections on the project were penned by the trio, including one composed by Wynette herself. "Honky Tonk Angels" reached number six on the "Billboard" country albums chart and number 42 on the "Billboard" 200. It was Wynette's first top ten "Billboard" album in 18 years and her first album in 22 years to certify gold in the United States. AllMusic's Kelly McCartney called it "a fun listen" while the Songwriters Hall of Fame described it as a "landmark album".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1994, Wynette released a studio album of duets titled "Without Walls". It featured collaborations with notable artists of the era including Melissa Etheridge, Elton John, and Sting. Its first single was a duet with Wynonna Judd titled "Girl Thang", which was among Wynette's final charting singles. Although it did not chart in North America, "Without Walls" did reach number eight on the ARIA charts in Australia. The project received mixed reviews. BBC called it a "respect-laden series of duets", while biographer Jimmy McDonough called it "cringe-worthy". Health problems continued to affect Wynette into the 1990s as her dependence on prescription drugs increased. She often missed concerts because she was too ill to perform. In the mid-1990s, Wynette was hospitalized with a severe bile duct infection that nearly led to her death. Wynette was visited by George Jones during her recovery, who encouraged her to record another album with him. The result was 1995's "One". Released on MCA Records, the album reached number 12 on the "Billboard" country chart. It was followed by a high-profile duet tour featuring Jones and Wynette as headliners.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1995, Wynette was dropped by her long-time label, Epic Records. Despite this, she continued to be a popular concert attraction until her death. During this period, she re-made the Beach Boys's "In My Room" with Brian Wilson. The song proved to be her final recording. Wynette's final concerts and television performances were held in March 1998.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Other works by Wynette have also appeared outside of music. In 1979, she published a book about her life with author Joan Dew. Released by Simon & Schuster, it was titled "Stand by Your Man: An Autobiography". Dew toured with Wynette in the 1970s and wrote down what Wynette told her verbatim.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette's career also took shape through film and television. In 1981, CBS aired a television film about her life, also called "Stand by Your Man". Directed by Jerry Jameson, the film featured Annette O'Toole as Wynette while George Jones was portrayed by Tim McIntire. Both actors did their own singing for the roles. It was reviewed unfavorably by newspaper critics. "The New York Tikmes" commented, "The rags-to-riches sagas, presumably meant to be inspiring, tend to get trapped under a cloud of dreariness," wrote John O'Connor. "Suspicious viewers may legitimately conclude that the whole Tammy Wynette story has yet to be told." Richard Harrington of "The Washington Post" wrote, "It seems to capitalize on the creative achievement and financial success of the Loretta Lynn film bio, 'Coal Miner's Daughter.' Unfortunately, television will be television, and the results are lackluster and somewhat misleading."


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1986, Wynette joined the cast of the CBS soap opera "Capitol", playing the role of a hair stylist-turned-singer, Darlene Stankowski. It was her first major acting role. In 1987, BBC released a documentary about her life called "Stand by Your Dream". A film crew followed Wynette while on the road and at home with her husband. The documentary was directed by Rosemary Bowen-Jones, who commented on it years later: "When you're someone like that, you've kind of rehearsed your life." Throughout her life, Wynette enjoyed cooking, and repeatedly cooked pinto beans on a range on her tour bus. This would inspire her to compile her 1990 cookbook "Tammy Wynette's Southern Cookbook", issued by the Pelican Publishing Company. The book featured southern American-inspired recipes used routinely in Wynette's family.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In the nineties, Wynette received more exposure on television. In 1994, she guest-starred on Burt Reynolds's CBS television program "Evening Shade". Fellow country artist K. T. Oslin also appeared on the show. She made a cameo on the sitcom "Married... with Children" in 1996. Wynette later voiced a role for the animated television show "King of the Hill". She portrayed Hank Hill's mother between 1997 and 1998.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Further works about her were released posthumously. Among them were three books that appeared in the years following her death. The first was written by Wynette's daughter, Jaclyn Daly, titled "Tammy Wynette: A Daughter Recalls Her Mother's Tragic Life and Death". Daly collaborated on the book with country music biographer Tom Carter. The second was written by Jimmy McDonough and titled "Tammy Wynette: Tragic Country Queen". The book offered a detailed account of both Wynette's life and career told through his own words and interviews he gave of those close to Wynette. A second was published by Wynette's fourth child, Georgette Jones, and was titled "The Three of Us". The book was focused on Georgette's own account of being Wynette's daughter and living her life with her father, George Jones. A limited series that will focus on Wynette and Jones's marriage began production in mid-2022. Titled "George and Tammy", it features Jessica Chastain in the role of Wynette and Michael Shannon as Jones. The series is based on Georgette Jones's memoir and is set to initially appear on Spectrum TV Stream.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette was plagued by health problems throughout her life. Her health declined even more in the final years of her life and she began to look more frail. Nashville writer Alanna Nash recalled watching one of Wynette's final music videos and remembered her physical condition: "Tammy looked ancient, like a plant that had withered up about to die. I thought, 'this woman is dying – why isn't somebody doing something?'" Wynette died on April 6, 1998, while sleeping at her Nashville, Tennessee home. She was 55 years old. Husband George Richey and Wynette were sleeping all day on adjacent living room couches when he discovered that evening that she was dead. Her death was certified by her doctor, Wallis Marsh, who flew from Pennsylvania to make it official. He stated in his original report that Wynette died from a blood clot in her lung.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In the days following her death, performers and other industry insiders reacted to her death. "She'll always be dear to me. She'll always be special. She'll always live in our memories," said Dolly Parton. "Tammy Wynette was an American original, and we will miss her," said Bill and Hillary Clinton. "We once made a record called "One of a Kind"," commented producer Billy Sherrill. "There are no more words. The words have all been said," he added.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: A public memorial service, attended by about 1,500 people, was held at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on April 9, 1998. The service was televised live by cable networks CNN and The Nashville Network. Parton gave remarks and performed a specially written song, closing her performance with a chorus from "I Will Always Love You." Country stars Wynonna Judd and Lorrie Morgan also performed while Merle Haggard offered his performance through a prerecorded video. Eulogies were given by other notable country artists, including Naomi Judd. A private, graveside service had been held earlier with a crypt entombment at Nashville's Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: According to her daughters, a will written by Wynette years prior had provided a trust. The specifics of the trust included money to be given to her four daughters over a period of time. The yellow legal pad which included this information (written by Wynette herself) was missing in the days following her death. Instead, Wynette's daughters were denied their inheritance of their mother's will by George Richey. Executive decisions were instead given to Richey and his brother, Carl Richardson. Richey received a one million dollar estate policy, along with an addition 1.4 million dollars on his own insurance policy. According to daughter Jackie, Richey was "evasive" when asked about the daughters' own payouts. Surprised by the will, Wynette's daughters began to question their mother's death.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Further detective work was conducted by local television reporter Jennifer Kraus. She discovered that a local company called Care Solutions Inc. had been delivering prescription drugs to Wynette's home through 1998. In April 1999, Wynette's daughters filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her doctor, Wallis Marsh, Care Solutions, and George Richey. The sisters claimed they were responsible for the country star's demise. Furthermore, they claimed that Richey refused to take advice from Dr. Marsh. According to Dr. Marsh, he had told Richey to take Wynette to a hospital in the days leading up to her death. In 1999, Wynette's body was exhumed and an autopsy was given. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy declared Wynette died from cardiac arrhythmia. The autopsy also revealed that Wynette had several powerful drugs in her system at the time of her death including Versed and Phenergan. Jackie Daly noted that her mother was regularly taking these drugs at the time of her death. Wynette used syringes and was later fitted with a permanent catheter into her side that allowed drugs to directly enter her bloodstream. The catheter was also used for Wynette to inject food because of her intestinal issues.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Richey was later dropped as a defendant from the suit, a court dismissed the claims against Care Solutions, and the remaining parties reached a confidential settlement with the doctor. Wynette's remains were re-interred in the Woodlawn Cross Mausoleum at Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee. In March 2012, the name on Wynette's tomb was changed from "Tammy Wynette" to "Virginia W. Richardson", her legal married name at the time of her death. Wynette's daughters were angered by the name change. Through Facebook, they launched a petition to urge fans to help change the name of her tomb back to "Tammy Wynette". More than 3,000 fans voted in support of the petition. In March 2014, the name on the tomb was changed back through a court order.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette married Euple Byrd (who was five years her senior) when she was 17, one month before her high-school graduation. She originally intended to marry his brother, D.C., but the relationship ended when he remarried his first wife. Wynette was not yet of legal age so her mother would be required to sign the marriage paperwork, but she refused and instead forced her daughter to leave the family home; her grandfather signed the papers that legalized their marriage. Byrd and Wynette fought throughout their relationship. Many of their marital conflicts stemmed from Byrd being unable to hold down a steady job. After becoming pregnant again, Wynette asked Euple to leave but he kept returning. After one argument, Wynette suffered a "nervous breakdown", according to biographer Jimmy McDonough, and her family took her to a psychiatric hospital. Doctors diagnosed her with depression and gave her 12 rounds of electric shock treatment.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Upon returning from the hospital, she still insisted on filing for divorce. However, her mother disapproved and Wynette secretly moved with her children to Birmingham, Alabama. While in Birmingham, Byrd returned and Wynette agreed to give their marriage one more chance. However, their problems continued and they eventually divorced in 1965. In one of their final encounters, Wynette told Byrd her ambitions of becoming a country performer. He then replied, "Dream on baby, dream on." A decade later, Byrd appeared at one of her concerts. When he asked for her autograph, she signed it, "Dream on, baby. Love, Tammy". Wynette and Byrd would later see each other at family functions when he began attempting to re-establish his relationship with their three daughters. In 1996, Byrd was killed in a car crash.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette met her second husband, Don Chapel, upon moving to Nashville in 1965. Chapel was a front desk attendant at the Red Anchor Motel in Nashville where Wynette was staying. The pair developed a romantic relationship through their day-to-day interactions at the motel. Chapel was also an aspiring songwriter and musician. He would later write several popular country songs, including one made commercially successful by George Jones titled "When the Grass Grows Over Me". The couple did not marry until 1967, and their courtship was brief. Her growing affection for George Jones would lead to the couple's divorce in 1968. Wynette later claimed in her autobiography that Chapel had taken and traded nude photographs of her to other male colleagues. Chapel denied the allegations and later filed a lawsuit against her for $37 million. The couple had no children and Chapel died in 2015.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette first met George Jones while on tour with him in the late sixties. Jones was also friendly with her second husband, Don Chapel, and the three often spent time together. According to Wynette, Jones helped her one evening when one of her children was hospitalized with food poisoning. The following day, Jones stopped by Chapel and Wynette's home. Chapel was irritated with Wynette because she would not stop playing Jones's music on their record player. Chapel then began directing derogatory words and profanity at her. Angered by Chapel's conduct, Jones overturned the couple's dining room table. Jones and Wynette then proceeded to confess their love for each other to Chapel. Immediately after the incident, Jones escorted Wynette and her three daughters out of the Chapel home. They never returned.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: After leaving Chapel, they flew to Mexico to get a quick divorce. However, her marriage to Chapel was later annulled because she remarried quickly after her first marriage to Euple Byrd. Jones and Wynette officially wed on February 16, 1969 in Ringgold, Georgia. The couple then proceeded to move into a plantation home in Lakeland, Florida. They later built a performance venue on the property, which they titled "Old Plantation Music Park".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Jones and Wynette's marriage was tumultuous. A major factor that affected their relationship was Jones's alcoholism. When he drank, he became difficult to control. This led to Wynette becoming angry with Jones's behavior. For a short period, Jones stopped drinking but then relapsed. In an effort for Jones to retain sobriety, they moved from Lakeland back to Nashville in 1972. However, Jones relapsed again, which caused further friction in their marriage. Wynette also attempted to stop his drinking herself. To stop Jones from driving under the influence, Wynette began hiding his car keys. On one day, Jones could not find where Wynette had hid his keys. As a result, he took the keys to their riding lawnmower and successfully rode it into town and back to purchase alcohol.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In a separate incident, Wynette claimed in her autobiography that Jones had chased her through their home with a loaded rifle. Jones later denied this in his own autobiography. Wynette filed for divorce in 1973, but the couple ultimately reconciled. By this point, they had moved to a larger home, also located in Nashville. However, their problems continued. Jones would often disappear for days at a time. In one attempt to locate him, Wynette drove her children and two friends down to Florida but were unsuccessful in their search. After a recording session between the couple in late 1974, Jones disappeared again. Disappointed and upset, Wynette filed for divorce for a second time. It was finalized on January 8, 1975. After the divorce became public, Wynette told the press, "George is one of those people that can't tolerate happiness. If everything is right, there's something in him that makes him destroy it."


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Following her divorce from George Jones, Wynette was romantically-linked to several people. She was briefly involved with Rudy Gatlin, a brother of Larry Gatlin and then-member of her touring band. According to Joan Dew, Larry did not approve of the relationship. Additionally, the couple received negative publicity after a fire was mysteriously started at Wynette's home. Rumors circulated that Rudy had started the fire. Amidst the publicity, their relationship ended. Wynette also dated actor Burt Reynolds during this period. The pair met while performing on a television show hosted by country artist Jerry Reed. Their relationship was temporarily kept secret but was eventually revealed by the press in 1977. The couple spent time in Florida, where Wynette owned a home. During one evening, Reynolds was taking a bath at her home when she found him unconscious. She was able to pull Reynolds out before he drowned. He was later diagnosed with having low blood sugar. Knowing that Reynolds was not ready to commit to a relationship, Wynette chose to end their romance. However, they remained friends until Wynette's death in 1998.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette then met real estate developer Michael Tomlin through her friend Nan Crofton. It was a brief courtship, as they married only weeks after meeting. The couple wed on July 18, 1976 at her Nashville home. Tomlin was known for renting private jets, drinking Dom Pérignon, and driving a Mercedes Benz. It has since been claimed by several Wynette's friends that Tomlin was not truthful about his life. "It was all a facade. The furniture in his office was rented," remembered Joan Dew. Following the couple's honeymoon in Hawaii, Wynette claimed that Tomlin spent a lot of money and attempted to fire a gun on the beach, which scared her children. The marriage was annulled six weeks following their wedding.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: On July 6, 1978, Wynette married her fifth husband, George Richey. Richey had previously been a songwriter, music publisher, and record producer. Many of the songs Richey wrote had been recorded by George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Wynette herself. The two already had a professional relationship but a series of events in Wynette's personal life changed their relationship. This included several instances when Richey visited Wynette while she was recovering from illnesses at the hospital. After a recording session one evening, Richey professed his love for Wynette. The pair then married. Richey then became his wife's full-time manager. Among his first moves as manager was to fire several of Wynette's female road crew members. "I cannot start a life with and build a relationship with Tammy and her girls when I'm livin' in a female dormitory," he told a female coworker. He also took control of her finances.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette's marriage to Richey caused friction between her loved ones. According to Wynette's youngest daughter, Georgette Jones, Richey attempted to keep his wife away from her close friends. Georgette also claimed to have been estranged from her biological father (George Jones) because Richey did not want her to see him. Older daughter, Jackie Daly, claimed that Richey had helped to "enable" her mother's drug addiction. Singer Lorrie Morgan believed that Richey was only interested in his new wife's money and earnings. George Jones commented, "I believe a lot of things went on that shouldn't have went on. Let me put it that way." Wynette told the press that she loved Richey, while family and friends claimed that she regretted her decision to marry him. "It was an emotionally abusive relationship," reported Georgette Jones. Nonetheless, the couple remained together until her death in 1998. Richey remarried Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Sheila Slaughter in 2001. Richey died in 2010 at the age of 74.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette gave birth to four daughters. Three of her children were from her first marriage to Euple Byrd. Their first child, Gwendolyn Lee, was born on April 14, 1961. Their second, Jaclyn Faye, was born on August 21, 1962. Her third, Tina Denise, was born on March 27, 1965, which was three months early and she weighed only . Four months later, she was diagnosed with spinal meningitis and kept in isolation at a hospital for 17 days. Wynette borrowed several thousand dollars from her uncle to afford the hospital bills. Tina eventually made a full recovery. In 1975, Tina would record an album with her mother and stepfather titled "George & Tammy & Tina".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In October 1970, Wynette had her fourth daughter, Tamala Georgette Jones, her only child from her relationship with George Jones. Georgette would eventually create her own music career as an adult. She has since recorded five albums and toured internationally as a country artist. Since their mother's death, Jaclyn and Georgette have worked to keep the legacy of their mother alive. Both daughters wrote memoirs about their mother following her death. The first was penned by Jaclyn Daly in 2000 titled "Tammy Wynette: A Daughter Recalls Her Mother's Tragic Life and Death". Georgette would also publish a memoir of her childhood with Wynette and her father in 2011.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: A series of incidents occurred over the course of Wynette's personal life that were considered controversial. Among the most well-known was an incident in which Wynette claimed to have been kidnapped. On October 4, 1978, Wynette went shopping at Green Hills Shopping Center (now The Mall at Green Hills) in Nashville. Upon returning to her unlocked car, Wynette claimed a man was in the backseat with a gun. She was then released 80 miles away in Giles County, Tennessee and claimed to have been suffering from neck injuries. She sought help from a local resident who brought her a cold wet rag and called Wynette's family. Richey appeared at the scene to retrieve her.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: After the alleged kidnapping, more incidents occurred that were said to have been linked to the same event. Several days later, Wynette's youngest daughter (Georgette) was nearly abducted from school. Wynette then appeared in Columbia, South Carolina to give a concert. Following the show, Wynette received a crumpled-up note backstage that said, "I'm still around, I'll get you." An FBI investigation occurred following these incidents that proved inconclusive and no arrests were ever made. Several rumors then began circulating about the alleged kidnapping. One rumor centered around ex-husband George Jones attempting to plot revenge on his ex-wife. Another rumor centered around Wynette using the kidnapping to cover up infidelity to Richey. Both Jackie Daly and Georgette Jones claimed the kidnapping was staged in an attempt to cover up being beaten by Richey.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: During the late seventies, a series of burglaries and break-ins occurred at Wynette's Nashville residence. One night while she was sleeping, Wynette woke to a fire. She attempted to call the police, but her phone lines were cut. A total of three rooms were destroyed from the incident. Police never discovered who had started the fire, despite giving several people lie detector tests. Once again, no arrests were ever made.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1992, 24 years after it topped the country chart, Wynette's signature song ("Stand by Your Man") became the subject of political debate. When asked during a "60 Minutes" interview about her marriage to then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton (who had been accused of infidelity), Hillary Clinton said, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette". The end of this quotation has also appeared as "some little woman, standing by my man and baking cookies, like Tammy Wynette." However, the reference to cookie-baking more likely comes from an unrelated remark by Hillary Clinton: "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life." The remark received widespread media and press attention. Wynette wrote to Clinton, saying, "With all that is in me, I resent your caustic remark. I believe you have offended every true country-music fan and every person who has made it on their own with no one to take them to the White House." Hillary then remarked to the press that she had no intention of speaking negatively about Wynette and that she enjoyed Wynette's music. She then personally called Wynette and apologized to her.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 1970, Wynette underwent a hysterectomy following the birth of her fourth daughter. This procedure started a series of health issues that affected Wynette for the rest of her life. Following the hysterectomy, Wynette developed an infection that resulted in a continual build-up of scar tissue (also known as adhesions). The infection and hysterectomy resulted in lifelong problems with her gall bladder. The pain was so severe that Wynette started taking pain killer medication to alleviate her symptoms.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Beginning in the early seventies, she started taking Valium and regularly used it on the road before concerts. However, her adhesions continued and Wynette had a series of operations to stop them from forming. She then was being prescribed more painkillers, which caused a drug addiction starting in the seventies. Along with Valium, Wynette also was prescribed Demerol to alleviate her stomach cramps. She even began taking the drug when she was not in pain. She then began taking shots of Demerol when pills did not work anymore. Her road crew also began giving Wynette shots. One of Wynette's doctors showed her road crew how to give Demerol shots while she was on the tour. Soon, Wynette's doctors realized that she had grown addicted to the medication they prescribed her. When doctors stopped giving her prescriptions, Wynette sought out physicians from all over the United States to give her the same prescriptions. Some nights on the road, Wynette would have her bus stop at hospitals where she could acquire more medication. During this same period, Wynette also underwent surgeries to remove nodules on her vocal cords and a surgery for a kidney problem.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Her drug problem became public for the first time in November 1986 when she announced she would enter the Betty Ford Center for treatment. Her public appearances were then canceled until the start of 1987. Three weeks into the six-week treatment program, Wynette began having stomach pain following an afternoon meal. She was then hospitalized for an intestinal blockage. The blockage revealed that previous surgeries had caused a narrowing of the area where food left her stomach. She then had an eight-hour operation where she said 25 percent of her stomach was removed. She was then put back on the same drugs to alleviate the pain, which reinstated her addiction to painkillers.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette continued abusing painkillers into the nineties. During this time, she started taking a different drug for pain named Dilaudid. Wynette often carried the drug in her purse. In 1993, she entered the hospital after developing a bile duct infection. She was in critical condition because of the infection's severity. Her blood pressure dropped and she was in a coma for several days. She later made a full recovery. In the final years of her life, Wynette was often given oxygen and IV treatments to alleviate further medical problems she developed. All the while, she continued to abuse drugs and was routinely being injected with pain medication until the end of her life.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette was marketed as a country artist throughout her career and considered the genre to be the roots of her musical style. While Billy Sherrill served as her producer, he imparted his style of Nashville sound, also called "countrypolitan", a style of country characterized by heavy use of string sections and backing vocals. Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" called her "the standard-bearer of an elaborately orchestrated Nashville sound." Marcus K. Dowling of CMT commented that "the birth of the blend of blue-collar roots and countrypolitan flair that defined four decades of female country stars can be associated with Wynette." She also released music in country's sub-genres honky tonk and country pop.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette's signature recording, "Stand by Your Man", was often considered to be about women remaining faithful to their husbands through difficult times. Mary A. Bufwack and Robert K. Oermann stated that the song "typecast Tammy as the long-suffering housewife, forlornly putting up with abuse for the sake of love." Jon Pareles wrote in 1998 that it "established Ms. Wynette in the role of a long-suffering but determinedly loyal wife, holding the family together even when her husband strayed."


title: Tammy Wynette

text: The song and its concept drew criticism as well, including the women's liberation movement who were gaining political traction when the single was released in 1968. Many feminists criticized it for influencing housewives to view themselves as subservient to their husbands. Sherrill explained to "The Wall Street Journal" his reasons for composing it: "I reworked the lyrics so the story came from the perspective of a woman singing to another woman—as if she were giving advice to a friend who was a little unsure about how to hold on to her man." "All I wanted to say in the song was, 'Be understanding. Be supportive'", Wynette herself later commented.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: The song helped develop a sound and style that made her commercially successful in the next several years following "Stand by Your Man". Number one singles such as "Singing My Song", "I'll See Him Through", "The Ways to Love a Man", and "He Loves Me All the Way" followed similar themes about housewives staying faithful to their husbands. While she was often stereotyped for only recording songs about housewives, her song choices reflected various feminine perspectives. The 1967 single "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad" warned a husband that his wife will start behaving like the rowdy women he interacts with at the bar. In the 1982 single "Another Chance", a woman chooses not to take her partner back after reassessing her life as a single woman. In her 1983 single "Unwed Fathers", Wynette described the scrutiny and societal backlash faced by teenage mothers.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette was also a songwriter and wrote many of her most popular recordings. She co-wrote "Stand by Your Man", along with the number one singles "Singing My Song", "The Ways to Love a Man", "We Sure Can Love Each Other", "Another Lonely Song", and "'Til I Can Make It on My Own".


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette had a mezzo-soprano vocal range. She was known for delivering singing performances with an emotional vulnerability that has been described as a "teardrop" vocal style. This delivery also helped her become billed as the "Heroine of Heartbreak". Her original producer was the first to give Wynette the "teardrop" moniker. The Country Music Hall of Fame wrote, "Her gripping, teardrop-in-every-note vocal style seemed to weep with emotion, while she elaborated on the theme that suffering ennobles a woman." Other publications described Wynette's emotional depth in other ways. "Rolling Stone" wrote, "Tammy could sustain power and complexity, whether whispering in your ear or shoving you up against a wall of sound." "The New York Times" wrote, "When the songs moved toward honky-tonk or old-fashioned weepers, Ms. Wynette did more than navigate the melody dutifully; her voice showed the emotional depth that was smothered elsewhere."


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Before marrying George Jones, Wynette idolized him first as a country singer. Her mother owned all of Jones's records and Wynette was fascinated by his phrasing. She often sang his songs to pass the time while picking cotton on her family's farm during childhood. Wynette also cited female country artists Patsy Cline and Skeeter Davis as early influences on her music. She learned to harmonize in the recording studio by listening to Davis's "The End of the World". She also cited Hank Williams as an early inspiration. She recalled listening to Williams's records every night. Outside of country, Wynette also was influenced by R&B music. she also credited Ray Charles and the Platters as influences on her music.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette helped bring a female's perspective to country music. Her music spoke for rural and working class women who previously lacked representation in the genre. Wynette's music also helped eliminate some of the male bias at country radio by expanding women into the record-buying public. Along with Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, Wynette elevated the popularity of female country artists. In total, Wynette had 39 singles reach the "Billboard" country chart while 20 topped the same chart. She has been said to have sold roughly 30 million records worldwide. Kurt Wolff of "Country Music: The Rough Guide" called her "the most successful woman country singer of the late 1960s". "Her vibrant, pleading timbre was up to the task of portraying women who have been wronged by their men, and women who are determined to stay in a relationship at any cost," he commented. Edward J. Reily of "American Popular Culture Through History" called Wynette "one of the most successful female country vocalists of all time."


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette's impact led to her being referred to by critics and fans as "The First Lady of Country Music". David Don Drehle of "The Washington Post" described the title in 1998: "Wynette's voice – raw, broken, sad, knowing – prophesied [...] The First Lady of Country, she came to be known for her string of hurtin' hits." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated that Wynette to achieved the honorary title because she "dominated the country charts". He also commented that both her record production and modern storylines that defined her songs also helped give her the title.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Her partnership with George Jones is considered among country music's most iconic collaborations. Sara Kettler of "Biography" commented, "Despite many ups and downs – including two divorce filings – the pair still recorded some of the best duets in country music history." Noah Berlatsky of "The Atlantic" wrote, "The part-schtick, part-sincere corniness that was in different ways so integral to both of their performance styles was multiplied to extravagant levels when they sang together under [Billy] Sherrill's auspices."


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Journalist Claudia Levy of "The Washington Post" called Wynette "one of country music's most influential singers." Her career helped influence an entire generation of female country performers, according to NPR. Faith Hill stated, "Especially with the next generation developing and creating their music, I think it's important they hear Tammy Wynette." Miranda Lambert found that Wynette's "Stand by Your Man" had a double meaning that reflected both the loyalty women have towards spouses and the strength they have as women. Kellie Pickler wanted to bring awareness of her music to a new generation by recording a track titled "Where's Tammy Wynette" for her 2012 album "100 Proof". Reba McEntire credited her as influence and later recorded a song called "Tammy Wynette Kind of Pain" for her 2019 album "Stronger Than the Truth". Other artists who have cited Wynette as an influence include Garth Brooks, Suzy Bogguss, Rosanne Cash, Brandi Carlile, Terri Clark, Sheryl Crow, Sara Evans, Melissa Etheridge, Emmylou Harris, Elton John, Wynonna Judd, Martina McBride, Lorrie Morgan, Carly Pearce, Orville Peck, Taylor Swift, Pam Tillis, Shania Twain, Tanya Tucker, Carrie Underwood, Lee Ann Womack and Trisha Yearwood.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Wynette received a number of honors during her lifetime and posthumously. In 1991, Music City News gave Wynette the Living Legend Award. In 1996, she received the American Music Awards' "Award of Merit", given to artists "who have made truly exceptional contributions to the music industry". In 1993, she was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. She also performed for several American presidents during her lifetime. This included performing for Ronald Reagan at The White House in 1983. In 1991, she performed at the Ford's Theatre for then-President George H. W. Bush.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: Posthumously, Asylum Records released a tribute album called "Tammy Wynette Remembered" in 1998. The project featured some of Wynette's most popular songs re-recorded by contemporary artists from various musical genres. Also in 1998, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1999, "Stand by Your Man" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The song was later added to the National Recording Registry. In 1999, Wynette was included on VH1's list of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock. In 2003, she was posthumously given the Pioneer Award from the Academy of Country Music. Country Music Television included her on its list of "40 Greatest Women of Country Music" in 2002. In 2009, Wynette's contributions as a songwriter allowed for her induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.


title: Tammy Wynette

text: In 2010, the state of Mississippi designated a segment of Mississippi Highway 23 the Tammy Wynette Memorial Highway. The stretch of road is in Itawamba County, where Wynette was born. Also that year, the Country Music Hall of Fame opened an extended exhibit showcasing Wynette's life and career. Titled "Tammy Wynette: First Lady of Country Music," the exhibit ran from August 2010 to June 2011. In 2017, she was ranked number 16 on "Rolling Stone"'s 100 Greatest Country Artists of All-Time list. In 2021, her recording of "Stand by Your Man" was ranked as No. 473 on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Additionally, her recording of "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" placed at number 69 on "Rolling Stone"s 2014 list of the "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time".


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank ( ; Eugenie Victoria Helena; born 23 March 1990) is a member of the British royal family. She is the younger daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York. She is a niece of King Charles III, and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. At birth, she was 6th in the line of succession to the British throne and is now 11th. She is the younger sister of Princess Beatrice.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Born in Portland Hospital, London, Eugenie attended St George's School and Marlborough College before studying at Newcastle University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in English literature and history of art. She joined the auction house Paddle8 before taking a directing position at art gallery Hauser & Wirth. Eugenie also works privately with a number of charitable organisations, including Children in Crisis and Anti-Slavery International.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank, a brand ambassador, in 2018. Their son August was born in February 2021.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie was born by Caesarean section at Portland Hospital in the West End of London on 23 March 1990 at 7:58 pm, the second child of the Duke and Duchess of York, and sixth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. On 30 March, it was announced that the Duke and Duchess of York had named her Eugenie Victoria Helena.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: She was baptised at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, by the Bishop of Norwich on 23 December 1990. She was the first royal baby to have a public christening and the only one of the Queen's grandchildren not to be baptised in the Lily Font.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie's parents divorced amicably when she was six years old. The Duke and Duchess of York had agreed to joint custody of their two children. After the divorce, the Queen provided her parents with £1.4 million to set up a trust fund for her and Beatrice. Eugenie and her sister frequently travelled abroad with one or both of their parents.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: In October 2002, the 12-year-old Eugenie underwent back surgery at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London to correct scoliosis; two titanium rods were put in her back. She made a full recovery and was not required to undergo any further surgeries.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie began her schooling at Winkfield Montessori from 1992 to 1993. From there, she joined her sister at Upton House School in Windsor until 1995. She attended Coworth Park School (now Coworth Flexlands School) from 1995 to 2001, and then St George's School, near Windsor Castle until 2003. For the next five years, Eugenie boarded at Marlborough College in Wiltshire. She achieved three A-Levels, including an 'A' in art, an 'A' in English literature, and a 'B' in history of art. She undertook a gap year before continuing her education in 2009.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie began studying at Newcastle University in September 2009. She graduated in 2012 with a 2:1 degree in English Literature and History of Art.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: In 2013, she moved to New York City for one year to work for the online auction firm Paddle8 as a benefit auctions manager. In July 2015, she moved back to London to work for the Hauser & Wirth art gallery as an associate director and was promoted to director in 2017.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Speaking on Channel 5 documentary "Beatrice and Eugenie: Pampered Princesses", royal commentator Richard Kay claimed Eugenie enjoyed taxpayer funded security when she travelled the world during her gap year.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: The Duke of York's Office at Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on 22 January 2018. The couple had been dating for seven years, and were first introduced by friends in a ski break in Verbier, Switzerland, where Brooksbank was working. They were engaged on vacation in Nicaragua. In April 2018, the couple moved from St James's Palace and took up residence in Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace. The wedding took place at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on 12 October 2018. The wedding dress was designed by the British fashion designers Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos of British-based label Peter Pilotto, and was designed to display her surgical scar. Eugenie chose to show her scar to honour those that helped her, and to inspire others with the condition of scoliosis.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie gave birth to a son, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, on 9 February 2021 at the Portland Hospital in London, born by caesarean section due to her childhood scoliosis operation. At birth, he was eleventh in line to the throne. He is named after his great-grandfather Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and two of his five-times great-grandfathers: Reverend Edward Hawke Brooksbank, and Prince Albert, whose given names included "Augustus". August was christened at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor Park, on 21 November 2021, alongside his second cousin, Lucas Tindall.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: From November 2020 to May 2022, the couple's main residence was Frogmore Cottage, which was leased to Eugenie's cousin Prince Harry. In May 2022, it was reported they had moved to Portugal, where Brooksbank works for Michael Meldman, and that they would once again stay at Ivy Cottage while in England.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie receives no allowance from the Privy Purse. She does, however, undertake occasional public engagements, which are usually connected with the charities she supports, including the Teenage Cancer Trust and Children in Crisis. In 2018, Children in Crisis merged with Street Child, a children's charity active in multiple countries, with Eugenie still serving as an ambassador.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: Eugenie and her sister represented their father at a service of thanksgiving for her aunt, Diana, Princess of Wales, in 2007. In 2008, she performed her first solo public engagement, opening a Teenage Cancer Trust's unit for young cancer patients in Leeds.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: On 2 June 2011, Eugenie visited the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) with her father as one of her first official engagements. In April 2012 she agreed to be patron for the hospital's Redevelopment Appeal, which was her first patronage. In 2014, Eugenie re-opened the children's unit at the RNOH. In 2014, she partnered with Daisy London Jewellery to create a limited edition charity bracelet to benefit the RNOH's Appeal. In January 2013, Eugenie and her sister promoted Britain overseas in Germany.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: In 2016, Eugenie, along with her mother and sister, collaborated with British contemporary artist Teddy McDonald. The painting on canvas, titled Royal Love, was painted at Royal Lodge and exhibited in London prior to being sold with all proceeds from the sale of the painting donated by McDonald to the charity Children in Crisis. Eugenie and her sister became Patrons of the Teenage Cancer Trust in June 2016. She is also Patron of the Coronet Theatre, the European School of Osteopathy, the Tate Young Patrons and, alongside her mother, the Elephant Family, of which her uncle and aunt, the King and the Queen Consort, were joint presidents. In 2016, Eugenie visited a safe house run by The Salvation Army and met with victims of sexual abuse and modern slavery.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: In 2017, Eugenie became the ambassador for the Artemis Council of the New Museum, a by-invitation membership initiative focused solely on supporting female artists. Eugenie also became an ambassador of Project 0 in 2018, a charity which in partnership with Sky Ocean Rescue, focuses on protecting the ocean from plastic pollution. In July 2018, in her capacity as co-founder and director of the Anti-Slavery Collective, Eugenie spoke at the NEXUS Global Summit at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss ending modern slavery. She and Julia de Boinville founded the collective in 2017 after a trip to Kolkata in 2012, where they first became familiar with the subject. In September 2018, she travelled to Serbia to visit ASTRA and ATINA, two grantees of the UN Trust Fund which fight against the issues of human trafficking and violence against women. In August 2019, it was announced that she would launch a podcast, the first member of the royal family to do so. Together with Julia de Boinville, co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective, they highlighted and discussed issues related to modern slavery. The first episode of the podcast, titled "Floodlight", was released in April 2022. In July 2019, Princess Eugenie, with the help of the University of Hull's Wilberforce Institute, hosted an event at Westminster Abbey to understand the scale of the plight of modern slavery. In October 2019, Eugenie became patron of Anti-Slavery International.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: In May 2020, it was revealed that Eugenie and her husband were helping The Salvation Army with packing foods amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2020, Eugenie became patron of the Scoliosis Association UK. In June 2021, Princess Eugenie became an ambassador for the Blue Marine Foundation, and met with environmentalists at Somerset House. In October 2021, Princess Eugenie visited The Salvation Army's outreach hub as part of her work with the Anti-Slavery Collective. She took part in an art therapy class alongside modern slavery survivors. In June 2022, Eugenie launched the "Ocean Advocate Series", which features conversations with ocean advocates and experts on how to preserve the seas and the environment.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: On 17 September 2022, during the period of official mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, Eugenie joined her sister and six cousins to mount a 15-minute vigil around the coffin of the late Queen, as it lay in state at Westminster Hall. On 19 September, she joined other family members at the state funeral.


title: Princess Eugenie

text: As a male-line grandchild of the sovereign, Eugenie was known as "Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie of York", with the territorial designation coming from her father's title, Duke of York. Since her marriage, she has been styled "Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank" in the Court Circular.


title: Language family

text: A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common "ancestral language" or "parental language", called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a biological family tree, or in a subsequent modification, to species in a phylogenetic tree of evolutionary taxonomy. Linguists therefore describe the "daughter languages" within a language family as being "genetically related".


title: Language family

text: According to "Ethnologue" there are 7,151 living human languages distributed in 142 different language families. A living language is defined as one that is the first language of at least one person. The language families with the most speakers are: the Indo-European family, with many widely spoken languages native to Europe (such as English and Spanish) and South Asia (such as Hindi and Bengali); and the Sino-Tibetan family, mainly due to the many speakers of Mandarin Chinese in China.


title: Language family

text: Lyle Campbell (2019) identifies a total of 406 independent language families, including language isolates.


title: Language family

text: There are also many dead languages which have no native speakers living, and extinct languages, which have no native speakers and no descendant languages. Finally, there are some languages that are insufficiently studied to be classified, and probably some which are not even known to exist outside their respective speech communities.


title: Language family

text: Membership of languages in a language family is established by research in comparative linguistics. Sister languages are said to descend "genetically" from a common ancestor. Speakers of a language family belong to a common speech community. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, with the original speech community gradually evolving into distinct linguistic units. Individuals belonging to other speech communities may also adopt languages from a different language family through the language shift process.


title: Language family

text: Genealogically related languages present shared retentions; that is, features of the proto-language (or reflexes of such features) that cannot be explained by chance or borrowing (convergence). Membership in a branch or group within a language family is established by shared innovations; that is, common features of those languages that are not found in the common ancestor of the entire family. For example, Germanic languages are "Germanic" in that they share vocabulary and grammatical features that are not believed to have been present in the Proto-Indo-European language. These features are believed to be innovations that took place in Proto-Germanic, a descendant of Proto-Indo-European that was the source of all Germanic languages.


title: Language family

text: Language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as "branches" of the family because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. A family is a monophyletic unit; all its members derive from a common ancestor, and all attested descendants of that ancestor are included in the family. (Thus, the term "family" is analogous to the biological term "clade".)


title: Language family

text: Some taxonomists restrict the term "family" to a certain level, but there is little consensus in how to do so. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into "groups", and groups into "complexes". A top-level (i.e., the largest) family is often called a "phylum" or "stock". The closer the branches are to each other, the more closely the languages will be related. This means if a branch of a proto-language is four branches down and there is also a sister language to that fourth branch, then the two sister languages are more closely related to each other than to that common ancestral proto-language.


title: Language family

text: The term "macrofamily" or "superfamily" is sometimes applied to proposed groupings of language families whose status as phylogenetic units is generally considered to be unsubstantiated by accepted historical linguistic methods.


title: Language family

text: There is a remarkably similar pattern shown by the linguistic tree and the genetic tree of human ancestry


title: Language family

text: that was verified statistically. Languages interpreted in terms of the putative phylogenetic tree of human languages are transmitted to a great extent vertically (by ancestry) as opposed to horizontally (by spatial diffusion).


title: Language family

text: Some close-knit language families, and many branches within larger families, take the form of dialect continua in which there are no clear-cut borders that make it possible to unequivocally identify, define, or count individual languages within the family. However, when the differences between the speech of different regions at the extremes of the continuum are so great that there is no mutual intelligibility between them, as occurs in Arabic, the continuum cannot meaningfully be seen as a single language.


title: Language family

text: A speech variety may also be considered either a language or a dialect depending on social or political considerations. Thus, different sources, especially over time, can give wildly different numbers of languages within a certain family. Classifications of the Japonic family, for example, range from one language (a language isolate with dialects) to nearly twenty—until the classification of Ryukyuan as separate languages within a Japonic language family rather than dialects of Japanese, the Japanese language itself was considered a language isolate and therefore the only language in its family.


title: Language family

text: Most of the world's languages are known to be related to others. Those that have no known relatives (or for which family relationships are only tentatively proposed) are called language isolates, essentially language families consisting of a single language. There are an estimated 129 language isolates known today. An example is Basque. In general, it is assumed that language isolates have relatives or had relatives at some point in their history but at a time depth too great for linguistic comparison to recover them.


title: Language family

text: It is commonly misunderstood that language isolates are classified as such because there is not sufficient data on or documentation of the language. This is false because a language isolate is classified based on the fact that enough is known about the isolate to compare it genetically to other languages but no common ancestry or relationship is found with any other known language.


title: Language family

text: A language isolated in its own branch within a family, such as Albanian and Armenian within Indo-European, is often also called an isolate, but the meaning of the word "isolate" in such cases is usually clarified with a modifier. For instance, Albanian and Armenian may be referred to as an "Indo-European isolate". By contrast, so far as is known, the Basque language is an absolute isolate: it has not been shown to be related to any other modern language despite numerous attempts. Another well-known isolate is Mapudungun, the Mapuche language from the Araucanían language family in Chile. A language may be said to be an isolate currently but not historically if related but now extinct relatives are attested. The Aquitanian language, spoken in Roman times, may have been an ancestor of Basque, but it could also have been a sister language to the ancestor of Basque. In the latter case, Basque and Aquitanian would form a small family together. (Ancestors are not considered to be distinct members of a family.)


title: Language family

text: A proto-language can be thought of as a mother language (not to be confused with a mother tongue, which is one that a specific person has been exposed to from birth), being the root which all languages in the family stem from. The common ancestor of a language family is seldom known directly since most languages have a relatively short recorded history. However, it is possible to recover many features of a proto-language by applying the comparative method, a reconstructive procedure worked out by 19th century linguist August Schleicher. This can demonstrate the validity of many of the proposed families in the list of language families. For example, the reconstructible common ancestor of the Indo-European language family is called "Proto-Indo-European". Proto-Indo-European is not attested by written records and so is conjectured to have been spoken before the invention of writing.


title: Language family

text: A sprachbund is a geographic area having several languages that feature common linguistic structures. The similarities between those languages are caused by language contact, not by chance or common origin, and are not recognized as criteria that define a language family. An example of a sprachbund would be the Indian subcontinent.


title: Language family

text: Shared innovations, acquired by borrowing or other means, are not considered genetic and have no bearing with the language family concept. It has been asserted, for example, that many of the more striking features shared by Italic languages (Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, etc.) might well be "areal features". However, very similar-looking alterations in the systems of long vowels in the West Germanic languages greatly postdate any possible notion of a proto-language innovation (and cannot readily be regarded as "areal", either, since English and continental West Germanic were not a linguistic area). In a similar vein, there are many similar unique innovations in Germanic, Baltic and Slavic that are far more likely to be areal features than traceable to a common proto-language. But legitimate uncertainty about whether shared innovations are areal features, coincidence, or inheritance from a common ancestor, leads to disagreement over the proper subdivisions of any large language family.


title: Language family

text: The concept of language families is based on the historical observation that languages develop dialects, which over time may diverge into distinct languages. However, linguistic ancestry is less clear-cut than familiar biological ancestry, in which species do not crossbreed. It is more like the evolution of microbes, with extensive lateral gene transfer. Quite distantly related languages may affect each other through language contact, which in extreme cases may lead to languages with no single ancestor, whether they be creoles or mixed languages. In addition, a number of sign languages have developed in isolation and appear to have no relatives at all. Nonetheless, such cases are relatively rare and most well-attested languages can be unambiguously classified as belonging to one language family or another, even if this family's relation to other families is not known.


title: Language family

text: Language contact can lead to the development of new languages from the mixture of two or more languages for the purposes of interactions between two groups who speak different languages. Languages that arise in order for two groups to communicate with each other to engage in commercial trade or that appeared as a result of colonialism are called pidgin. Pidgins are an example of linguistic and cultural expansion caused by language contact. However, language contact can also lead to cultural divisions. In some cases, two different language speaking groups can feel territorial towards their language and do not want any changes to be made to it. This causes language boundaries and groups in contact are not willing to make any compromises to accommodate the other language.


title: Vanna White

text: Vanna White (born Vanna Marie Rosich; February 18, 1957) is an American television personality and game show hostess. She is best known as the co-host of "Wheel of Fortune", a position she has held since 1982. She began her career as a model while studying fashion, competing in Miss Georgia USA in 1978. In addition to her work on "Wheel of Fortune", she has played minor characters or appeared as herself in many films and television series, and she is the author of the 1987 autobiography "Vanna Speaks". White also participates in real estate investment, owns the yarn brand "Vanna's Choice", and patronizes St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.


title: Vanna White

text: Vanna Marie Rosich was born on February 18, 1957, near North Myrtle Beach in Horry County, South Carolina, the daughter of Joan Marie (Nicholas) and Miguel Angel Rosich. Her parents divorced when she was an infant and she was raised by her mother, Joan, and stepfather, Herbert White Jr. (1925–2022), in North Myrtle Beach. White took the name of her stepfather, a former real estate broker. (On April 1, 2022, White announced, to an outpouring of support, that he had died peacefully that morning).


title: Vanna White

text: After graduating from high school, White moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she attended The Atlanta School of Fashion and Design and worked as a model. She headed to Los Angeles in 1979 to pursue an acting career. She spent the summer of 1980 back in South Carolina with her mother, who was dying of ovarian cancer.


title: Vanna White

text: White's first appearance in a game show was on the June 20, 1980, episode of "The Price Is Right", in which she was among the first four contestants. She did not make it on stage, but the clip of her running to Contestants' Row was rebroadcast as part of "The Price Is Right 25th Anniversary Special" in August 1996, "The Price Is Right Celebrates 50 Years" in September 2021 (in which she also appeared as a Guest Model during the show), and also was featured on the special broadcast "Game Show Moments Gone Bananas".


title: Vanna White

text: In 1980, White acted in a film that was not completed; the film was subsequently edited and released in June 1990 as "Gypsy Angels". In 1981, she got a bit part in the film "Looker" and also appeared as Doris in the horror movie "Graduation Day", an American slasher film directed by Herb Freed and produced by Troma Entertainment.


title: Vanna White

text: Her 1987 autobiography, "Vanna Speaks!", was a best-seller. Also in 1987, she was featured in a "Playboy" pictorial, showing photos taken of her before her career on "Wheel of Fortune", wearing see-through lingerie.


title: Vanna White

text: In 1988, she appeared in the NBC television film "Goddess of Love", in which she played Venus; Betsy Palmer co-starred as Juno; it scored 12% of the Audience Vote on Rotten Tomatoes.


title: Vanna White

text: She has made cameo appearances on television shows such as "L.A. Law", "227", "Super Mario Bros. Super Show", "Simon and Simon", "The King of Queens", "Full House", "RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars" and in films such as "" (1994) and "Double Dragon" (1994).


title: Vanna White

text: She guest starred on "Married...With Children"; in a gender-bending parody of the film "Indecent Proposal", White had the Robert Redford role while Al Bundy had that of Demi Moore. She served as guest timekeeper and provided interviews from the backstage area throughout the evening for "WrestleMania IV". In 1996, she was the main narrator and singer in the CD release of Leslie Bricusse's "Santa's Last Ride".


title: Vanna White

text: On April 20, 2006, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with Pat Sajak, Merv Griffin, and Alex Trebek as key witnesses.


title: Vanna White

text: White lent her voice to the Canadian animated television special "The Real Story of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and the American animated television series "Captain Planet and the Planeteers".


title: Vanna White

text: White presented a set of luggage in a special guest appearance on "The Price Is Right Celebrates 50 Years" in September 2021.


title: Vanna White

text: In May 2022, White appeared as a special guest in the seventh season of "RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars" where the contestants did a runway in tribute to her past looks.


title: Vanna White

text: After "Wheel of Fortune" hostess Susan Stafford left in October 1982, White was selected as one of three substitute hostesses (along with Vicki McCarty and Summer Bartholomew) to co-host the show. On December 13, 1982, White became the regular hostess.


title: Vanna White

text: On November 8, 2019, Sony Pictures Television announced that White would temporarily take over hosting "Wheel of Fortune" as MC starting with the week of episodes which were slated to air starting on December 9, 2019. The announcement was made after a taping day was postponed when Sajak was hospitalized with a blocked intestine and needed emergency surgery in order to clear it. White hosted that taping day and the subsequent rescheduled taping day the next day. Guest letter activators were implemented during her shows hosting; the weeks of December 9 and 16 had Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse during the "Secret Santa Holiday Giveaway". Subsequently, the show went on hiatus during Christmas week (December 23, 2019) and then a week of previously taped "America's Game" episodes ("Wheel" tapes six episodes per day, with each studio audience receiving three shows each; the third show in the afternoon session is an "America's Game" episode) that Sajak hosted, before White returned to hosting on January 6, 2020, for a final week; she was assisted by a "special guest", Pat Sajak's daughter Maggie. Fully recovered from his surgery, Sajak returned to the show on December 5, 2019, with episodes to be broadcast beginning on January 13, 2020.


title: Vanna White

text: Since 2021, Sajak and White hosted "Celebrity Wheel of Fortune" on ABC. Later in the year it was announced that both Sajak and White have been signed on to continue as hosts of "Wheel of Fortune" through the 2023–24 season.


title: Vanna White

text: White uses her income to invest in apartment buildings, and she likes flipping houses. In 2017, she listed her Beverly Hills home for $47.5 million.


title: Vanna White

text: When White was five, her grandmother taught her how to crochet. White had lost interest in the hobby over time until, on the "Wheel of Fortune" set, she noticed her pregnant hairdresser was crocheting a baby blanket for herself. White told her that she previously crocheted and asked the hairdresser to help her relearn crochet. When she has downtime on the set, she often crochets, as she finds it very relaxing and she has something to show for the time she's spent doing it.


title: Vanna White

text: White began her relationship with Lion Brand Yarns when she spoke about her love of crochet on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson"; the yarn company subsequently contacted her and negotiated a contract. She has her own line of yarn called "Vanna's Choice" and endorses crochet and knitting books published in her name.


title: Vanna White

text: White is famous for her seamless revealing of letters on the game board, her smile, and her constant clapping in support of each episode's contestants. On the May 24, 2013 episode of "Wheel of Fortune", White was presented with a Guinness World Record certificate for most frequent clapper. As of January 31, 2013, it was estimated she had clapped at least 3,480,864 times across the show's 30 seasons. She had appeared in all but 10 of Wheel's 5,754 episodes to that point, during the show's modern syndicated run, which began on September 19, 1983. That works out to an average number of 606 claps per show.


title: Vanna White

text: She was baptized a Baptist and identifies herself as a Christian. White dated "Playgirl" centerfold/Chippendales-dancer-turned-actor John Gibson in the 1980s, and they eventually became engaged. In 1986, Gibson was killed in a plane crash. White married restaurant owner George Santo Pietro in December 1990. White first became pregnant in September 1992. An episode of "Wheel of Fortune" contained "Vanna's pregnant" as the answer to a puzzle. She miscarried shortly after the episode's taping. White gave birth to a son, Nicholas (Niko), in 1994 and a daughter, Giovanna (Gigi), in 1997, from her marriage to Santo Pietro. The couple divorced in November 2002. From 2004 to 2006, she was engaged to Southern California businessman Michael Kaye. The two never wed. her partner is John Donaldson, who is a contractor. They started dating in 2012 after meeting each other through mutual friends.


title: Vanna White

text: In a conversation with Larry King, she indicated that her mother had told her that her 'uncle' was actor Christopher George. According to White, although George was not a biological relation of hers, her mother grew up with his family and, years later in Los Angeles, he and his wife took her under their wing. Also, in that same conversation, she said that her kids come to "Wheel of Fortune" tapings many times.


title: Vanna White

text: White is a patron of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, donating $1.8 million to the program and plans to continue her philanthropic works after her retirement from television.


title: Vanna White

text: In 1993, White sued Samsung Electronics over its use of an advertisement featuring a robot turning letters on a game show, alleging a violation of her personality rights. The lower court's decision in Samsung's favor was reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which denied a rehearing, and Judge Alex Kozinski issued a dissent. The U.S. Supreme Court denied "certiorari". A jury ultimately awarded White $403,000 in damages.


title: Rorschach test

text: The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning. It has been employed to detect underlying thought disorder, especially in cases where patients are reluctant to describe their thinking processes openly. The test is named after its creator, Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach. The Rorschach can be thought of as a psychometric examination of pareidolia, the active pattern of perceiving objects, shapes, or scenery as meaningful things to the observer's experience, the most common being faces or other pattern of forms that are not present at the time of the observation. In the 1960s, the Rorschach was the most widely used projective test.


title: Rorschach test

text: Although the Exner Scoring System (developed since the 1960s) claims to have addressed and often refuted many criticisms of the original testing system with an extensive body of research, some researchers continue to raise questions. The areas of dispute include the objectivity of testers, inter-rater reliability, the verifiability and general validity of the test, bias of the test's pathology scales towards greater numbers of responses, the limited number of psychological conditions which it accurately diagnoses, the inability to replicate the test's norms, its use in court-ordered evaluations, and the proliferation of the ten inkblot images, potentially invalidating the test for those who have been exposed to them.


title: Rorschach test

text: The use of interpreting "ambiguous designs" to assess an individual's personality is an idea that goes back to Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Interpretation of inkblots was central to a game, "Gobolinks", from the late 19th century. The Rorschach test, however, was the first systematic approach of this kind.


title: Rorschach test

text: After studying 300 mental patients and 100 control subjects, in 1921 Hermann Rorschach wrote his book "Psychodiagnostik", which was to form the basis of the inkblot test. After experimenting with several hundred inkblots which he drew himself, he selected a set of ten for their diagnostic value. Although he had served as Vice President of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society, Rorschach had difficulty in publishing the book and it attracted little attention when it first appeared. Roscharch died the following year.


title: Rorschach test

text: It has been suggested that Rorschach's use of inkblots may have been inspired by German doctor Justinus Kerner who, in 1857, had published a popular book of poems, each of which was inspired by an accidental inkblot. French psychologist Alfred Binet had also experimented with inkblots as a creativity test, and, after the turn of the century, psychological experiments where inkblots were utilized multiplied, with aims such as studying imagination and consciousness.


title: Rorschach test

text: In 1927, the newly founded publishing house purchased Rorschach's book "Psychodiagnostik" from the inventory of Ernst Bircher. Huber remains the publisher of the test and related book, with Rorschach a registered trademark of Swiss publisher Verlag Hans Huber, Hogrefe AG. The work has been described as "a densely written piece couched in dry, scientific terminology".


title: Rorschach test

text: After Rorschach's death, the original test scoring system was improved by Samuel Beck, Bruno Klopfer and others. John E. Exner summarized some of these later developments in the "comprehensive system", at the same time trying to make the scoring more statistically rigorous. Some systems are based on the psychoanalytic concept of object relations. The Exner system remains very popular in the United States, while in Europe other methods sometimes dominate, such as that described in the textbook by , which is closer to the original Rorschach system and rooted more deeply in the original psychoanalysis principles.


title: Rorschach test

text: Rorschach never intended the inkblots to be used as a general personality test, but developed them as a tool for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. It was not until 1939 that the test was used as a projective test of personality, a use of which Rorschach had always been skeptical. Interviewed in 2012 for a BBC Radio 4 documentary, Rita Signer, curator of the Rorschach Archives in Bern, Switzerland, suggested that far from being random or chance designs, each of the blots selected by Rorschach for his test had been meticulously designed to be as ambiguous and "conflicted" as possible.


title: Rorschach test

text: The Rorschach test is appropriate for subjects from the age of five to adulthood. The administrator and subject typically sit next to each other at a table, with the administrator slightly behind the subject. Side-by-side seating of the examiner and the subject is used to reduce any effects of inadvertent cues from the examiner to the subject. In other words, side-by-side seating mitigates the possibility that the examiner will accidentally influence the subject's responses. This is to facilitate a "relaxed but controlled atmosphere".


title: Rorschach test

text: There are ten official inkblots, each printed on a separate white card, approximately 18 by 24 cm in size. Each of the blots has near perfect bilateral symmetry. Five inkblots are of black ink, two are of black and red ink and three are multicolored, on a white background.


title: Rorschach test

text: After the test subject has seen and responded to all of the inkblots ("free association" phase), the tester then presents them again one at a time in a set sequence for the subject to study: the subject is asked to note where they see what they originally saw and what makes it look like that ("inquiry" phase). The subject is usually asked to hold the cards and may rotate them. Whether the cards are rotated, and other related factors such as whether permission to rotate them is asked, may expose personality traits and normally contributes to the assessment.


title: Rorschach test

text: As the subject is examining the inkblots, the psychologist writes down everything the subject says or does, no matter how trivial. Analysis of responses is recorded by the test administrator using a tabulation and scoring sheet and, if required, a separate location chart.


title: Rorschach test

text: The general goal of the test is to provide data about cognition and personality variables such as motivations, response tendencies, cognitive operations, affectivity, and personal/interpersonal perceptions. The underlying assumption is that an individual will class external stimuli based on person-specific perceptual sets, and including needs, base motives, conflicts, and that this clustering process is representative of the process used in real-life situations.


title: Rorschach test

text: Methods of interpretation differ. Rorschach scoring systems have been described as a system of pegs on which to hang one's knowledge of personality. The most widely used method in the United States is based on the work of Exner. Administration of the test to a group of subjects, by means of projected images, has also occasionally been performed, but mainly for research rather than diagnostic purposes.


title: Rorschach test

text: The interpretation of a Rorschach record is a complex process. It requires a wealth of knowledge concerning personality dynamics generally as well as considerable experience with the Rorschach method specifically. Proficiency as a Rorschach "administrator" can be gained within a few months. However, even those who are able and qualified to become Rorschach "interpreters" usually remain in a "learning stage" for a number of years.


title: Rorschach test

text: The interpretation of the Rorschach test is not based primarily on the contents of the response, i.e., "what" the individual sees in the inkblot (the "content"). In fact, the contents of the response are only a comparatively small portion of a broader cluster of variables that are used to interpret the Rorschach data: for instance, information is provided by the time taken before providing a response for a card can be significant (taking a long time can indicate "shock" on the card). As well as by any comments the subject may make in addition to providing a direct response.


title: Rorschach test

text: In particular, information about "determinants" (the aspects of the inkblots that triggered the response, such as form and color) and "location" (which details of the inkblots triggered the response) is often considered more important than content, although there is contrasting evidence.


title: Rorschach test

text: "Popularity" and "originality" of responses can also be considered as basic dimensions in the analysis.


title: Rorschach test

text: The goal in coding content of the Rorschach is to categorize the objects that the subject describes in response to the inkblot. There are 27 established codes for identifying the name of the descriptive object. The codes are classified and include terms such as "human", "nature", "animal", "abstract", "clothing", "fire", and "x-ray", to name a few. Content described that does not have a code already established should be coded using the code "idiographic contents" with the shorthand code being "Idio." Items are also coded for statistical popularity (or, conversely, originality).


title: Rorschach test

text: More than any other feature in the test, content response can be controlled consciously by the subject, and may be elicited by very disparate factors, which makes it difficult to use content alone to draw any conclusions about the subject's personality; with certain individuals, content responses may potentially be interpreted directly, and some information can at times be obtained by analyzing thematic trends in the whole set of content responses (which is only feasible when several responses are available), but in general content cannot be analyzed outside of the context of the entire test record.


title: Rorschach test

text: Identifying the location of the subject's response is another element scored in the Rorschach system. Location refers to how much of the inkblot was used to answer the question. Administrators score the response "W" if the whole inkblot was used to answer the question, "D" if a commonly described part of the blot was used, "Dd" if an uncommonly described or unusual detail was used, or "S" if the white space in the background was used. A score of W is typically associated with the subject's motivation to interact with his or her surrounding environment. D is interpreted as one having efficient or adequate functioning. A high frequency of responses coded Dd indicate some maladjustment within the individual. Responses coded S indicate an oppositional or uncooperative test subject.


title: Rorschach test

text: Systems for Rorschach scoring generally include a concept of "determinants": These are the factors that contribute to establishing the similarity between the inkblot and the subject's content response about it. They can also represent certain basic experiential-perceptual attitudes, showing aspects of the way a subject perceives the world. Rorschach's original work used only "form", "color" and "movement" as determinants. However currently, another major determinant considered is "shading", which was inadvertently introduced by poor printing quality of the inkblots. Rorschach initially disregarded shading, since the inkblots originally featured uniform saturation, but later recognized it as a significant factor.