GEORGE JONES’S WIDOW KEPT A RUSTY LAWNMOWER KEY IN HER JEWELRY BOX FOR 10 YEARS — AND THE STORY BEHIND IT BROKE THE ROOM George Jones was called the greatest country singer who ever lived. He was also called No-Show Jones. The man who drank bottles for breakfast. The husband Tammy Wynette left because she couldn’t watch him die. Then Nancy came along in 1983. She hid his car keys. She hid his truck keys. She hid every key in the house. So one afternoon, George climbed onto his riding lawnmower and drove eight miles down the highway to the nearest liquor store. After George passed in April 2013, Nancy was asked what she kept of his. She opened a small wooden box and pulled out a single rusted key. “This is the one I forgot to hide,” she said. “And this is the one that taught me he wanted to live.” Because after that day, George stopped running. He married Nancy. He got sober. He recorded He Stopped Loving Her Today — the song many call the greatest country record ever made. Nancy kept the key that almost killed him — because it was also the key that saved him.
Why Nancy Jones Kept One Rusty Lawnmower Key After George Jones Was Gone George Jones carried more than one reputation…