On Wednesday, at the request of the First Lady of Country Music's fifth husband and former manager, George Richey, Tennessee medical examiners exhumed Wynette's body from her resting spot at the Woodlawn mausoleum in Nashville and performed an autopsy.
Tennessee's chief coroner, Bruce Levy, conducted the examination. A report will be issued in four to six weeks.
Levy's office had denied an earlier autopsy request from three of Wynette's daughters, Georgette Smith, Jackie Daley and Tina Jones, who suspect the "official" cause of their mother's April 6, 1998, death--a blood clot in one of her lungs--was incorrect. In early February, the coroner claimed he didn't have enough evidence to go ahead with an autopsy.
Last week, however, the three adult siblings sued Richey and Wynette's Pittsburgh-based physician, Wallis Marsh, for $50 million, claiming their negligence led to the "Stand By Your Man" singer's death.
Richey's request, medical examiners say, gave them what they needed to proceed with the exhumation.
"I am profoundly saddened her children are willing to drag their mother's closely guarded private life into the public, leaving me no choice but to respond," said Richey, who is not the father of any of the women.
"I'm saddened that out of frustration over financial matters, her daughters have been willing to work so hard to discredit their mother...I'm saddened that part of Tammy's legacy is this fiasco."
Prior to her death, Wynette had suffered from numerous health problems, including an intestinal illness and narcotic addiction. The official cause of death was based on Marsh's report, but the daughters claim he actually made their mother's health worse by treating her with yet more addictive medications.
They also blame Richey for helping Marsh keep Wynette on this destructive drug regimen, and for not seeking emergency help for their mother, who died in her sleep.