George Jones - Telegraph George Glenn Jones was born on September 12 1931 at Saratoga, in south-east Texas, the youngest of eight children. His father worked as a driver for a timber company and - after the family moved to a public-housing project at Beaumont, Texas - as a pipe-fitter in a shipyard. Later in his life Jones recalled being roused from his sleep as a small child to sing for his drunken father, and being beaten if he failed to comply. But he still developed a love of singing, and his clear voice helped to increase the congregation at his family's church, a Pentecostal tabernacle, where his mother played the piano. If George was not a good student at the local schools, he was at least a regular attender at his Sunday School, where he learned basic chords on his guitar. Abandoning his education at 16, he joined the performers Eddie and Pearl, appearing with them on their weekday radio show and playing the honky-tonk bars of east Texas and Louisiana at the weekends. He received a weekly salary of $17.50. During this period a disc-jockey, noting Jones's close-set eyes and upturned nose, gave him the nickname "Possum," which stuck with Jones throughout his life. In 1951, after a brief marriage, Jones joined the US Marine Corps to avoid being jailed for failure to pay child support. On his discharge two years later he returned to Beaumont, where he worked as a house painter. In 1954 he signed a contract with Harold "Pappy" Daily and his Starday label, recording his first single in Daily's living room, which had been wallpapered with egg cartons in an attempt to create the acoustics of a sound studio. The next year he had his first hit with Why Baby Why, the success of which earned him regular appearances on the radio show Louisiana Hayride and the prestigious Grand Ole Opry programme. Despite further successes in the country charts with such songs as Don't Stop the Music and Uh Uh No, Jones made an ill-advised attempt to cash in on the explosion of interest in rock and roll music. Using the pseudonym Thumper Jones, he made a series of unsuccessful recordings in a hybrid rockabilly style. Later he became so disgusted with these records that he was apt to destroy any he came across. Jones reached No 1 in the country charts for the first time in 1959 with White Lightning (co-written with JP Richardson, who was better known as "The Big Bopper" and died in the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly). Jones followed this up with a series of hits, including The Window Up Above (1960), Tender Years (1961), She Thinks I Still Care (1962), You Comb Her Hair and Ragged But Right (both 1963), Brown to Blue and The Race Is On (both 1964) and Good Year for the Roses (1970). His fame and success seemed to be enhanced by his marriage, in 1969, to Tammy Wynette. The couple recorded 10 successful albums together and had more than a dozen hit singles, including Golden Ring and Near You. But while Jones's public life appeared to go from strength to strength, there were problems on the domestic front. Tammy Wynette, in her autobiography, Stand By Your Man (1980), described in painful detail the couple's physical fights, Jones's lengthy disappearances and his alcoholic binges. The couple's divorce in 1974 provided Jones with plenty of material for heartbreaking ballads - notably The Grand Tour (1974) and Alone Again (1976) - as well as a further excuse for self-destruction. Due to his increasing reliance on alcohol and cocaine, he frequently failed to appear at concerts, earning the nickname "No Show Jones" (though he later used this as the title of a humorous duet with Merle Haggard). His promoters did not see the funny side and issued a series of lawsuits against him. He owed huge sums in unpaid taxes, was declared bankrupt and was arrested for drunk driving and for firing a gun at one of his friends. For an album of duets, My Very Special Guests (1979), featuring Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and Elvis Costello (an avid fan), Jones failed to turn up to any of the recording sessions, and had to add his own voice later, with disappointing results. In the same year Jones was admitted to hospital for his alcohol and drug problems, weighing little more than seven stone. Whatever treatment he received had an immediate effect on his career: the following year he won a Grammy for his single He Stopped Loving Her Today, and the album I Am What I Am was his first to sell more than half a million copies. Despite failing health and problems with his voice, due to diminished lung capacity, Jones continued to give concerts and to record albums, including You've Still Got a Place in My Heart (1984), Too Wild Too Long (1987), Salutes Hank Williams and Bob Wills (1992) and Bradley Barn Sessions (1994). In 1995, the year after he underwent a triple heart bypass operation, he was reunited with Tammy Wynette for a tour of Europe and America. As well as founding and running the Jones Country Music Park, at Colmesneil, Texas, Jones enjoyed working on his cattle farm near his home at Franklin, Tennessee. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He continued to record into the new millennium, and had planned a farewell tour in 2013. He married, first, Dorothy Bonvillion, with whom he had a daughter. His second wife was Shirley Ann Corley, with whom he had two sons. With Tammy Wynette, who died in 1998, he had another daughter, Georgette Jones, who became a country singer. His fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, whom he married in 1983, was also his manager. George Jones, born September 12 1931, died April 26 2013