During Tammy Wynette and Burt Reynolds' brief romance in the '70s, the country music star saved the Hollywood hitmaker's life.
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A 1991 article by the Associated Press' Joe Edwards reveals that in 1976, the "Stand By Your Man" singer found Reynolds unconscious in a filled bathtub at her Florida residence. She pulled him out just before he drowned. Reynolds was later diagnosed as having low blood sugar.
"It was very frightening," Wynette told Edwards. "I was scared to death."
In a more publicized incident, Wynette dodged one of Reynolds' famous exes, movie star and fellow vocalist Dinah Shore, at a Loretta Lynn concert in Los Angeles.
Lynn told NPR that Wynette hid in her dressing room.
"She says, 'Now, you make sure I don't run into Dinah Shore'," Lynn recalled. "I said, 'How come, Tammy?' She says, 'Well, I've been goin' with Burt.' I said, 'Oh, my God! A good friend you are to Dinah!' It was really funny. We didn't have no trouble that night, but Tammy left her hat."
Wynette and Reynolds remained close friends over the years. A Washington Post article from 1978 says that Reynolds gifted Wynette's children four Appaloosa horses. In the '80s, Wynette performed at Reynolds' dinner theater in Jupiter, Fla. And as Edwards reports, Reynolds directed the music video for Wynette's 1990 single "Let's Call It a Day (Today)."
Reynolds was tied romantically to Smokey and the Bandit co-star and Oscar winner Sally Field before his high-profile marriage to Loni Anderson. Wynette (born Virginia Wynette Pugh) had musical and marital ties to country music singer-songwriter George Jones and country songwriter and record producer George Richey.
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