When people go searching to see is Martha Matthews still alive, they usually aren't looking for a distant neighbor or a local librarian. They’re looking for the woman who stood at the center of one of country music’s most chaotic, legendary, and frankly, terrifying origin stories.
She was the first wife of Willie Nelson. The woman who reportedly sewed him into bedsheets and beat him with a broomstick.
History has a funny way of flattening people into caricatures. To many, Martha is just a footnote in a Hall of Fame career. But for those who grew up on the "Outlaw" era of music, she was a force of nature. So, let’s get the big question out of the way first.
The short answer: Is Martha Matthews still alive?
No. Martha Matthews passed away quite some time ago.
While the internet often gets confused because "Martha Matthews" is a relatively common name, the specific Martha who married Willie Nelson died on November 29, 1989. She was only 53 years old.
She lived long enough to see Willie become a global icon, but she didn’t live to see the 21st century. She died in Austin, Texas—the very city that eventually embraced Willie as its patron saint.
Who was the woman behind the legend?
Martha wasn't just some girl from the sidelines. She was a full-blooded Cherokee woman who met a young, skinny Willie Nelson in 1952. He was 18. She was 16.
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They met in a drive-in restaurant where she was working as a carhop. It was the classic mid-century romance: fast, hot, and probably doomed from the start. They married just months after meeting.
By all accounts, their marriage was a decade-long explosion. They had three children together: Lana, Susie, and Willie "Billy" Hugh Jr. But the domestic life didn't exactly settle them down.
The Bedspread Incident
You can't talk about Martha Matthews without talking about "the incident." If you’re a country music fan, you’ve heard it.
Willie had come home late—and drunk—one too many times. Martha, fed up with the lifestyle and the wandering, waited until he passed out. She then took bedsheets and literally sewed him into the mattress so he couldn't move.
Then? She grabbed a broomstick and went to town.
It sounds like a tall tale, something pulled from a tall-can of beer at a Nashville dive bar. But Willie himself confirmed it. In his own words, she was "as mean as a snake."
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Why people still ask about her today
So why does the question is Martha Matthews still alive keep popping up in 2026?
Mostly, it’s the staying power of Willie Nelson. As Willie continues to perform well into his 90s, new generations of fans are digging into his past. They want to know where the songs came from. They want to know about the women who inspired the heartbreak and the grit.
Also, there’s a lot of digital noise. If you look at recent obituaries, you’ll see:
- A Martha Matthews who passed away in Raleigh in 2022.
- Another Martha Matthews who died in San Antonio in July 2025.
- A Martha Lynn Matthews who died in 2022.
None of these are "the" Martha. It’s easy to see why someone would get turned around.
The tragic aftermath of the Nelson-Matthews era
The couple finally called it quits in 1962. It was a messy divorce, as you'd expect.
Martha stayed in the Texas area, mostly staying out of the spotlight that was beginning to grow increasingly bright around her ex-husband. Sadly, the family faced significant tragedy later on. Their son, Billy Nelson, died by suicide on Christmas Day in 1991—just two years after Martha herself passed away.
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That specific branch of the Nelson family tree has seen a lot of "hard living," a phrase Willie uses often.
Her real legacy
Honestly, Martha Matthews represents a specific era of American culture. She was part of that post-war, rough-and-tumble Texas scene where music wasn't a "career choice"—it was a survival tactic.
She wasn't a "celebrity wife" in the way we think of them now. She was a woman trying to hold a family together while her husband chased a dream that, at the time, looked like a dead end.
What you should take away:
- Check the dates: Martha Jewel Matthews (the one married to Willie) died in 1989.
- Avoid the confusion: Recent obituaries for women with the same name are not related to the country music legend.
- Respect the history: While the stories of their fights are legendary, she was the mother of three of Willie’s children and a massive part of his early development as an artist.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into this era of music history, your best bet isn't just a Google search. Pick up a copy of Willie: An Autobiography. He doesn't hold back on the details of their life together, and it gives a much more nuanced view of Martha than any tabloid ever could.
Next time you hear "Night Life" or "Funny How Time Slips Away," remember that those songs didn't come from a vacuum. They came from a life lived with people like Martha Matthews.
Actionable Insight: If you're researching genealogy or celebrity history, always cross-reference middle names and birth locations. Martha Jewel Matthews was born in Texas in 1936; this distinguishes her from the many other Marthas in public records. To get the full story of the "Outlaw" movement, look for biographies of Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, which often detail the interconnected lives of these families during the 50s and 60s.