Watch: Tammy Wynette Spelled D-I-V-O-R-C-E to the World When it wasn’t Cool

If you Google the history of ‘Divorce’ being officially legislated in the USA, California became the first state to pass a no-fault divorce law. Tammy Wynette on the other hand, had been singing her heart out since 1968 about the heartbreaks of a collapsing marriage.

“D-I-V-O-R-C-E” Lyrics

Our little boy is four years old and quite a little man
So we spell out the words we don’t want him to understand
Like T-O-Y or maybe S-U-R P-R-I-S-E
But the words we’re hiding from him now
Tear the heart right out of me.

Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E; becomes final today
Me and little J-O-E will be goin’ away
I love you both and this will be pure H-E double L for me
Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

Watch him smile, he thinks it Christmas
Or his 5th Birthday
And he thinks C-U-S-T-O-D-Y spells fun or play
I spell out all the hurtin’ words
And turn my head when I speak
‘Cause I can’t spell away this hurt
That’s drippin’ down my cheek.

Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E; becomes final today
Me and little J-O-E will be goin’ away
I love you both and this will be pure H-E double L for me
Oh, I wish that we could stop this D-I-V-O-R-C-E.

D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Tammy Wynette

There are a lot of reasons why hyphens were put for emphasis when writers, Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman pens the song that would be one of Tammy Wynette’s defining moments both on charts and history.

1968 was not a good time for feminism as it is only the time when previous women’s rights champions were  molding the basic definition of women’s rights. Wynette was becoming famous for her songs delivering thousands of emotions about the struggle of being a woman in many aspects of life.

Nowadays, ‘divorce’ is too normal that we can just ask an attorney to prepare the paperwork for us. It was during Wynette’s time when the singer’s mastery of relaying pain about a marriage coming to an end and the ordeal of explaining it to a child did we realize that we are not so different after all.

Yes, it’s still painful to explain a divorce to a kid but hey, let’s take a moment to thank Tammy Wynette for performing this song with much bravado.