Jones George - The three of us: growing up with Tammy and George

T HE T HREE OF U S

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Copyright 2011 by Georgette Jones

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First Atria Books hardcover edition May 2011

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Designed by Richard Oriolo

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jones, Georgette.
The three of us : growing up with Tammy and George / Georgette Jones with
Patsi Bale Cox.
p. cm.
1. Wynette, Tammy. 2. Jones, George, 1931 3. SingersUnited StatesBiography. 4. Country musiciansUnited StatesBiography. 5. Jones, Georgette, 1970
I. Cox, Patsi Bale. II. Title.
ML400.J663 2011
782.4216420922dc22
[B] 2011000278

ISBN 978-1-4391-9857-5
ISBN 978-1-4391-9859-9 (ebook)

F OR MY PARENTS,
T AMMY W YNETTE AND GEORGE JONES

Thanks to you both for your unconditional love, patience, and encouragement, and for sharing your passion for music with me. Thanks for the many life lessons that made me a better person along the way, and for trying to protect me from the world. I pray that you both know how much I love you!

T HE T HREE OF U S

GO, MOM!

I still remember the day I first saw number 7 in action. I was nine years old, and we were living at First Lady Acres on Franklin Road in Nashville. I had been out on the road with Mom, whod been playing a long series of shows despite having a broken finger and being in some pain with it. When we got home, my stepfathers teenage nephews, Rodney and Roger, had set up a basketball hoop next to the garage. We were getting off the bus, and Mom heard them shouting, Hook shot! Hook shot! One of them dribbled up, went for the shot, and missed.

Thats not a hook shot! Mom called out.

What do you know about hook shots? one of them asked, snickering, as Mom stood there, obviously tired from the trip, her broken pinky finger in a splint held out in front of her.

Ill show you boys what a hook shot is, she said with a smile. Throw me the ball, and then you two try to guard me just as if I was a boy. Dont cut me any slack.

The boys were young, strong, and laughing by this time. I was thinking, Oh, how embarrassing! Mom was really going to look dumb.

But she caught the ball and started dribbling toward the hoop. She went right around both of them before they knew it, jumped up under the hoop, and sank the shot perfectly.

Now, that, boys, is a hook shot, she said. I started jumping up and down and clapping. Mom winked at me, then sailed on past them and into the house. I was right behind her, and for the first time, I wanted to know all about her high school basketball career. There were many times throughout her life that I was so proud of Mom that I was busting my buttons, but never any more than when she sank that shot.

WHEN I WAS a child, I didnt understand that there was any question about what my mom was really like. She was just my mom, certainly not Tammy Wynette: Woman of Mystery. It would be years before I grasped the concept that there were unanswered questions: Was she a symbol of Fragility? Vulnerability? Tragic Southern Gothic? Or was she sturdy little Virginia Pugh, number 7 on Tremont Highs 1960 girls basketball team? Ive seen her fragile, vulnerable, and tough. I have seen her sink a perfect hook shot.

Ive despaired over the many misguided decisions she made because of the need to have a strong man in her life at all times. And I have felt pride that she was the first single-mother, career-driven singer to brave Nashville broke and alone and become almost an overnight success. I can now understand how those two realities worked together, both for and against her.

People often use the word tragic when they talk about Moms experiences, and while I know she had tragedy in her life, the word shouldnt be glued to her life story. For one thing, human history is full of tragedy, just as it is filled with joy. Mom had both, like everyone else.

As much as people have wondered about Mom, I fear an even bigger mythology has been built on misconceptions about my dad. I think many people believe Dad was some nonstop-partying country music outlaw. He is anything but that. In the past, George Jones drank to fit in with the partyers, not because it came naturally. Dad is old-fashioned, shy, and very sensitive. If you get to know him, he loosens up, but it takes a while. In fact, his drinking started after he was out playing in clubs and having to deal with the bar crowd people hovering around, hanging on him. It was almost a defense mechanism, a weapon against his introverted nature. The truth is, hes old-fashioned about almost everything, including how he looks at parenting.

I got a big surprise the first time I had a date on a night that I was staying at Dads house. I was around fifteen or sixteen. Dads son, my half brother Bryan, had a brother-in-law named Lonnie who wanted to take me out, and I accepted. I assumed that I didnt need to run it by Dad because he knew the family. So when Lonnie picked me up for a movie, I just left with him. We hadnt made it a half mile when I saw Dads wife, Nancy, barreling down the road behind us. She pulled up and said we needed to come back to the house before we went anywhere. I must have looked confused, because she started shaking her head.

I know, I know. But your dad says Lonnie didnt come talk to him. He says hes not letting you go to a movie or anyplace else with someone he hasnt spoken tono matter who it is. Hes never actually met Lonnie, Georgette. The two of you need to have dinner with us.

We went back and ate, and then Dad wanted to spend about thirty more minutes with us. He explained very politely that he just needed to meet Lonnie officially and properly. And then we could go to the movies. For Dad, it was the proper way to date.

Dads much more old school than people may think. And Mom was a lot tougher.

WRITERS HAVE CALLED my parents marriage a union made in honky-tonk heaven, and to complete that picture, I am told that my birth was hailed as the Birth of Countrys Heir Apparent. When I was born in 1970, Billy Sherrill, one of Nashvilles most powerful record producers, sent Mom a dozen roses and a signed recording contract for me. The Crown Princess of Country already had a career, all dues paid by her parents.

Whoa! Im glad that I didnt know about that record contract business when I was a kid. Just standing in their shadows was tough enough. I didnt want any spotlights shone in my direction! It would have been completely out of character for either of my parents to take advantage of that potential opportunity, or to make me feel obligated or entitled to enter the family business. When I finally heard about it as a young teenager, it was almost a throwaway line. Not a big deal. A fun gesture made by the legendary man who produced all those superstars, including Tammy and George.