West's friend and fellow artist Tammy Wynette stated that she had put aside visiting her in the hospital, saying she had planned to allow West to heal first, something she admitted to later as regretting. In his autobiography, Kenny Rogers, who maintained a very close friendship with West, stated he did pay a visit to her in the hospital a few times prior to her death. On his last visit (the day of West's death), Rogers recalled that although he was told she was unlikely to hear him, he still spoke to her for a considerable amount of time in the hope that she could hear what he was saying.