"I've never told anybody that she told me that," said Morgan during an interview, with a sense of awe in her voice. "She invited me to her house for chicken and dumplings. She told me ... `You are THE ONE to carry on the flame.'"And I was like, I can never tell anybody that. They'll think I'm lying."
Like Wynette, Morgan is an earthy, beautiful blonde whose singing voice can make a happy country song a bit melancholy and a sad one nearly unbearable.
At 40, Morgan is at a crossroad in her career.
In an era when Nashville seems to introduce a new teen-age Shania Twain wannabe every week, she is leaving RCA Records and has taken on entertainment industry powerhouse Irving Azoff as her manager.
Among Azoff's clients are the Eagles and Don Henley as a solo artist. Morgan hopes Azoff can help her launch a film career and pick a record company that is committed to keeping a veteran on the charts.
Before she rushes into the future, Morgan recorded five new songs for RCA, the hits collection "To Get to You." All the songs speak to the experiences of modern women.
Spanning her work back to 1988, the CD is rife with women scorned ("Good as I Was to You"), women struggling to save their marriages ("Maybe Not Tonight"), and women needing to blow off some steam ("One of Those Nights Tonight").
There's a remake of the Wynette classic "Another Lonely Song," about a woman enduring a long night while her lover is in another's arms.
"Whoop-de-do," written by Angela Kaset and Craig Carothers, puts down older men who use young girlfriends as trophies. "You gonna help her with her homework later/Then brag to all your friends/'Bout how you scored again," she taunts in the song.
Her children and ex-husband Jon Randall, a country singer, suggested "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan. It works wonderfully as a country song.
"Women deal with a lot, and that's what Tammy knew," said Morgan, casual in Calvin Klein overalls and lighting the first of several cigarettes.
"She knew that we have to be that saint on Sunday morning and the devil on Saturday night. But in the meantime, be sure the kids have their homework, be sure you've got the meals cooked and the clothes are ironed.
"Be sure you look good, your hips aren't too fat, but yet you're not too skinny. Women have a lot on us, and Tammy got it. And that's what I want to be to the next generation, if that makes any sense."
Morgan grew up around show business as the fifth child of Country Music Hall of Famer George Morgan. She idolized Wynette, Jeannie Seely and Connie Smith.
After debuting on the Grand Ole Opry at 13, she worked for years to establish herself as a hitmaker. She finally scored her first Top 10 hits in 1989, but the breakthrough was marred by the death of her husband, country music great Keith Whitley.
She has been married three other times, twice to musicians and once to a bus driver. Morgan's two children are Jesse Keith Whitley, 12, and Morgan Anastasia Gaddis, 19.
Morgan said she feels much like any other 40-year-old divorcee, struggling to balance a career, dating and motherhood.
"I'm a country singer, but I'm a woman, and I'm a lover, and I've been a wife, and I've been a friend, and I've been a mom," she said. "All us women go through the same thing.
"I want to sing those songs for women that give us a little bit of strength to make one more bed, mop one more floor, wipe one more dirty nose, and still be able to dress up."
Wynette would be proud.
"It's almost a dedication that I'm going to carry the tradition of country music and the tradition of the great ladies of country music on, until I hit a brick wall," Morgan said. "And then when I hit the wall, I'm just going to chisel through it."
