Donna & Tammy Wynette

It was a very exciting time for Donna in her early teen years. "I went from living in a small town in New Richmond, Ohio to living next door to Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison," says Donna.

During the spring of 1967, Donna and her two brothers, Mike and Gary, had been living with their grandmother, Memaw, in the small town next to the Ohio river. Their father, Don, asked them to come visit him in Nashville. He had a surprise for them. When they arrived in Nashville, they learned about their new stepmother, who was a singer like their father. They would soon become a family of eight with Don's three children and Tammy's three daughters.

"My first job when in Nashville was to sing backup for Tammy," remembers Donna. "I had to sound as much like Tammy as possible." Singing on the road and full time travel on a bus, soon became a way of life for Donna. I would open the show for Tammy by doing a few solo numbers like 'Ode to Billy Joe' and then sing backup once Tammy came out on stage," says Donna.

"I often did rehearsals with the band for Tammy, and even learned how to fix hair. Tammy would show me, just how, to do her hair and that also became one of my jobs. To this day, I still like to fix hair for others," laughs Donna.

"Our first bus was an old bus that George Jones sold us. The bus didn't"t have any water, microwave, baths or showers. It was just shell with a few bunk beds and room in the back for dad and Tammy. We would stop at the Standard gas stations and get cleaned up many a times. They had the cleanest rest rooms back then," adds Donna. "Often, we had to be one city and then the next night another, we had no time to stop and get a motel room to clean up properly," explains Donna.

"We did a number of package shows with people like Waylon Jennings, Tex Ritter, Mel Tillis, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, Grandpa Jones, Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb, Dottie West, Connie Smith, Jimmy Dean, Minnie Pearl, George Morgan and a host of others, and even good ole George Jones," recalls Donna.

"George was around us a lot back then. He would come over to our house if we had a few days off the road. Sometimes, when we did shows with George, he would let me sing a duet with him on stage. The song was, "We Must Have Been Out Of Our Minds," that George and Melba Montgomery had out a few years before. Looking back, I now know why he was around so much," chuckles Donna.

Much has been said in books written by George Jones and Tammy Wynette that is untrue and also hurtful to Don Chapel (and even Mike Chapel.)Don Chapel was the person who led Tammy to her success and his whole family was her support back then. She made a choice to go to George, and in so doing hurt many people who loved her. There were many things written that were absolutely untrue and all of Don's love and help was crushed by their insults and slander done so publicly. I write this to let everyone know that Don was not the person he has been portayed to be...he should be remembered for helping Tammy and I only wish she could have made that right before she left this world.


"After Tammy left, dad and I continued on the road with our own show, The Don & Donna Chapel Show. Working with Tammy gave us a lot of exposure on T.V., radio, and working with Epic Records. We continued to record with Epic, though most of my work was not released," says Donna.

"I learned a lot from Tammy and appreciated having the chance to help her in the early days of her career. Tammy and I stayed in touch throughout the years. She always treated me as a friend, and never seemed to have any bad feelings toward me, over the split dad and her went through," says Donna.

 

George Jones & Donna Chapel at our home.

 

"I was on my way to booking in West Virginia, when we learned about Tammy's death. We had spent the night in Ohio, and the next morning, CNN had a picture of Tammy and I at the Ernest Tubb Record Shop on the screen, and then the announcer said, 'she passed away last night'. I just couldn't believe it. Even now, it is hard to accept."

"I last saw Tammy at Wagner, South Dakota in August of 1997, singing at the Fort Randall Casino. These photo's were taken that night, and later signed by Tammy."