Coming Home: Tammy Wynette’s Grammy on display in North Alabama
RED BAY, Ala. (WHNT) — This year’s Grammy Awards honored country music legend Tammy Wynette with a 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award. Wynette’s daughter, Georgette Jones, brought the Grammy to Red Bay on Thursday.
The award will sit on display at the Red Bay Museum, which presents the largest public collection of Tammy Wynette memorabilia in the world.
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“We have so much family and friends here,” Jones said. “It would just mean the world to her that it’s being shown here.”
Wynette grew up in a house in Tremont, just over the Mississippi/Alabama state line, but she spent a lot of time in Red Bay during her childhood. Today, both towns claim the singer as their own.
“This is where her family and friends are, and we’re just really proud they’re honoring and remembering her in this way,” Jones said.
Red Bay Museum Curator Scotty Kennedy said Wynette’s legacy is well worth remembering.
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“She was one of us and she rose to international fame,” Kennedy said. “She paved the way for so many young female artists because back in that day, it was hard to even get a recording contract. You’d go and say, ‘Can I try out for you? We already have a female singer.'”
Wynette’s songs tell stories of love, loss and family. Her daughter said she pulled her loved ones close during her life, and she continues to do so now.
“It’s always mom who seems to bring us together,” Jones said. “It just feels like she’s here with us as usual, bringing us all together again.”
Wynette was the first female country artist to sell more than a million copies of an album. She had more than 20 songs reach number one on the charts, and her Lifetime Achievement Award is one her daughter said she would have been honored to receive.
“I think she would have been at a loss for words at first,” Jones said. “The Grammys was always to her the ultimate in an achievement for her career. It’s voted on by her peers and so it’s totally different from most of the awards she’d gotten in the past.”
Tammy Wynette’s Annual Birthday Celebration is coming up the first weekend in May.
The Red Bay Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 4 in honor of the celebration. The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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