Miss Vicki & Tiny Tim: It Takes Two

By Miss Vicki Budinger

In 1969 I stayed up two hours past my bedtime to watch the astonishingly popular TV marriage of Mr. Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki Budinger, aka Miss Vicki to millions. In 1982 I began a fourteen-year professional friendship with Tiny Tim. He and many others told me that I would never find or speak with Miss Vicki, who just wanted to be left alone. This weekend, forty years past my bedtime, I found her. Ladies and gentlemen, my new friend, the fabulous Miss Vicki, in her exclusive debut as a professional writer.

--Bucks Burnett


Every young girl dreams of what her wedding will be like. I was no different. My dreams did NOT include TV cameras, or people I didn't know and had never met in attendance. But, I married  a celebrity, Tiny Tim, and he loved the idea of getting married on The Tonight Show. And so, on December 17, 1969, we had our wedding on Johnny Carson's television program, with a whole lot of people watching. There was so much hoopla, I never expected all the press and all the talk about it.

The marriage didn't last long. Turned out, I was not cut out for life in a fishbowl, and then Tim and I didn't get along very well. (Big understatement!). I was 17. He was 37. He was from New York. I grew up in a small suburb in New Jersey.

He loved all the attention, all the press, (I don't blame him, not one bit, he was in show business!). But I grew to hate being in the spotlight. And being with him, well, that was one huge honkin' spotlight. It was 40 years ago, but seems like a hundred to me.

Now, four decades later, I am married again, to Jon Benson, a boy I dated before I met Tiny Tim. We were very much in love back then. It was 1968, I was still in high school. But, we lost each other, (my parents disapproved), and I kept sneaking out to see him, and I got grounded a million times. I was only 16; I guess they were afraid I'd end up marrying him, having a bunch of kids, and living in his parent's basement (this idea probably would have appealed to me).  

I never saw him again or heard from him, until three years ago. He called me, right out of the blue...and wanted to see me. I could hardly believe it was Jon, my very first boyfriend. The first boy I loved, and the only one. I had gone to visit his parents about 20 years ago, hoping to find him. They told me he was married, and happy, so I left it alone...and I figured his Mother never told him about my visit; she probably saw 'homewrecker' printed on my forehead.

After he called me, we got together, and talked for hours. It was as if all the years just fell away. We were just as we were. He hadn't changed one bit, nor had I. This was March 2006, and we were married in July that same year.

We were married in a park, with 25 people in attendance, just our family and friends. The mayor of the town where we were living at that time performed the ceremony. He was so nice. My car was parked in the driveway, and it had a flat tire. And the mayor offered to fix it! We thanked him, but told him it was no big deal, we just took Jon's pickup truck. We had a barbeque, one of our friends manned the grill, and another friend was the DJ and played all our favorite music. Jon and I made a fruit salad, and my daughter brought a cake. It was a beautiful, happy day.

We are very happy together. We live out in the woods in Tennessee, with our six chickens, and a cat named Pooders.  We have three children and six grandchildren between us, who we love very much. I like to go out in the woods and find wild flowers, and bring them home and put them in mason jars, and arrange them in the house. And I grow herbs and roses and lavender. We are trying to live a self-sufficient life. We have a huge vegetable garden, and trade extra food that we have grown at a local market for things like melons and extra honey. We have an apple tree, and Jon makes the best pies ever. And we have plum trees, so we make plum jam. I spend a lot of time pickeling and canning, and I love doing all that.

I have made some very bad choices in my life and I have regrets about some of those choices. I can't go back and start over, although I sure wouldn't mind. There are many things I would do differently, and things I wish I hadn't done. I wasn't mature enough or smart enough to make all the right decisions. I dated a man suspected of murder, I dated an alcoholic who hit me, and I worked in bars. I don't know if I was a good mother.

I cannot say that I regret marrying Tiny; sure, there were times that I wished I had never met him. But I am not bitter. He's dead now, and he was loved by many people. And it would be unkind to them and to him to say anything hurtful.

There was a long period of time when Tiny and I would have huge screaming arguments over the phone, and hang up on each other. This was long after we were divorced. We were still so angry with each other. He would say mean things about me in an interveiw, so then I would get mad and say mean things to him.

After I heard he had a heart attack and he was home from the hospital, I called him. I asked how he was feeling, and he said "I'm fine."  He told me he was going to be alright, and then I told him I'm sorry for all the mean things I said. I really never meant any of them. And he said "I know you didn't, I always knew." And then he apologized, too. It was our first nice conversation in many years. He died three days later. I was very glad I called him. And that we were kind to one another.

Now, at the age of 57, I think I finally know what's important and what isn't. It's really the little things, and those little things...they are the big things. It took me a while to grow up. I'm glad I did. And I am mature enough to know that I am still growing up.

You can read more about me on my blog at http://missvickinow.blogspot.com. And why am I blogging?  It helps me sleep better.