STANDING BY TAMMY: FANS FLOCK TO REPLICA OF COUNTRY STAR'S BUS

Over the past couple of months, Libby Roeger nearly ruined her car, filed for d-i-v-o-r-c-e and attended her father's funeral.

It would have made a great Tammy Wynette song.

"I call this my Tammy Wynette summer," said Roeger, 45, a Cape Girardeau resident. "So when I heard her bus was here, I knew damn well I was going to come and see it."

A replica of Wynette's tour bus made a stop Wednesday in the parking lot of the Town Plaza in front of Sander True Value Hardware Store as part of a 25-city promotion for a play about Wynette's life.

A few hundred people turned out despite torrid temperatures to catch a glimpse of some of the deceased country music legend's personal effects. Fans wiped away sweat while waiting alongside the bus on steaming asphalt, protected only by red traffic cones.

After walking onto the air-conditioned bus, the fans and the curious could see the crystal bowl of cotton that she picked as a child, her bronzed baby shoes, old photos, her Bible and her handwritten lyrics to "'Til I Make It On My Own."

Tucked neatly inside the Bible was a certificate for the daughter Wynette had during her turbulent marriage to George Jones. The certificate, from the St. Paul Christian Academy to Georgette Jones, was for completing 125 books.

"It's real neat stuff," said Mike Renick, who perused the items with a role of duct tape in his hand. "Oh, I just stopped in at the hardware store for this and I saw the bus. Not really a fan, but I just figured I'd check it out."

Singers take turns

The bus tour also offered tickets to the bio-play "Stand By Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story" to the winner of a singing contest. Several women sang in front of a Grand Ole Opry microphone stand planted on the sidewalk in front of the hardware store.

They belted out such Wynette classics as "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," "Kids Say The Darndest Things," and "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad."

Cape Girardeau native Carrie Padgett, who now lives in Nashville, Tenn., but was in town visiting her father, won for her rendition of "Stand By Your Man." She won tickets to the play, the Grand Ole Opry, the Country Music Hall of Fame and a chance to compete in the finals.

Kathy Nicholas of Jackson, Mo., didn't come to sing or win tickets, but as a Tammy Wynette fan, wouldn't miss a chance to see the bus.

Down to earth'

"Tammy just seemed real down to earth," Nicholas said. "She had a beautiful voice, for sure, but she seemed like a woman all women could relate to. She sang her songs from the heart."

Wynette was known as an everywoman -- she was born a Mississippi farm girl before working as a beautician, a waitress and a line worker in a shoe factory. She married early, had two children in three years and lived in an abandoned log house with no indoor plumbing.

Her shaky marriage crumbled and -- while working as a hairdresser -- she sang on a local country music television show, which led to her eventual country superstardom.

Wynette died in 1998 after 20 years of health problems.

WYNETTE FACTS

* Tammy Wynette was the first woman in country music to sell a million albums, earning her the moniker the "First Lady of Country Music."

* She earned two graffies, 16 BMI song-writing honors, 50 top 10 hits, 20 No. 1 singles and sold 40 million records.

* Wynette was posthumously inducted into the County Music Hall of FAme.

* "Stand By Your Man," Wynette's signature song, is still the highest selling single in country music history.

* Wynette stood by five husbands, most notably fellow country musician George Jones.