Tammy Wynette's daughters sued her husband for $50 million, and her body was exhumed for an autopsy

Tammy Wynette died at 55 at her Nashville home. Her physician, Dr. Wallis Marsh, gave a blood clot as the cause. No autopsy was done. Her husband and manager, George Richey, controlled her affairs. Three of her daughters, Jackie Daly, Tina Jones and Georgette Smith, wrote to Nashville medical examiner Dr. Bruce Levy asking for an exhumation. They said they wanted to know for certain how their mother died. In April 1999 they filed a $50 million wrongful-death suit against Richey and Marsh. Richey then agreed to the autopsy. The body was exhumed and examined on 14 April 1999. On 20 May Levy reported no evidence of a clot. He found that narrowed arteries had caused a cardiac arrhythmia, and that her system held the sedative Versed and the anti-nausea drug Phenergan. Richey was later dismissed as a defendant, and the suit continued against Marsh. The family split over her name and legacy for years. Richey died in 2010^†.