Dana York is widely known to the public as the widow of the late rock and roll legend, Tom Petty. She rose to limelight after the tragic death of her musician-husband on October 2, 2017. Dana worked as a principal in a university before she met her late husband, Tom Petty.
Dana York Epperson was born in 1964, in Flint, Michigan and raised in Genessee County, Michigan, where her mother still lives. She had quite a normal American life before she was married to the musician and thus, very little is known about her life prior to her fame.
Dana has a slim body and a decent height, however, the measurements are still under review. She has a dark brown pair of eyes, and her hair color is blonde.
As far as her schooling is concerned, she attendedFlushing High School in Michigan, where she graduated from in 1982. She had established her career in the educational sector as the principal at University High School in Ferndale, Michigan. However, as her relationship with Tom started, she resigned from that job and began working on Petty’s band, helping them schedule their tours.
Before Petty entered her life, York was married to someone else. When she first met Petty in 1991, at a concert in Texas, she was still married to her first husband and Petty was still married to his first wife, Jane Benyo.
However, Petty’s relationship with his wife began to turn sour due to drugs, which took a toll on their relationship, leading to their divorce which was finalized on September 9, 1996, ending a marriage that lasted for over two decades. Coincidentally, York started having issues with her first husband too and the couple also split the same year, in 1996.
York and Petty became closer that same year and despite having failed relationships formerly, the duo fell in love with each other and began their romantic relationship. York and Petty dated for six years before marrying on June 3, 2001, at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas.
Tom Petty was into drugs and because of the fact that Dana had seen her father being affected by substance abuse, she could provide the proper help that Tom needed. If Petty hadn't been married to Dana, chances were that he would have passed away years earlier.
For the initial few years that they were dating, York wasn't aware of Petty’s addiction problems as he hid it from her. Slowly as time passed and after spending lots of years together with him, Dana figured out that Tom had some problem.
Often Tom Petty would express his gratefulness to his wife for being so helpful and patient with him and gave her the full credit for saving him from drug addiction. Needless to say, Dana was just the ideal wife to her husband.
Dana York and Tom Petty didn't have children together, but each of them had children from their previous relationship. Dana York has a son named Dylan from her previous marriage whom Petty had later adopted.
Upon her marriage to Petty, Dana York became the step-mother to Petty’s daughters, Adria, and Kimberly Violette, from his previous marriage. Both of them belong to art just like their father. Adria is a film and music video director and has directed the music videos of top stars like Coldplay and Beyonce. Kimberly is also doing pretty well as a fashion designer and an artist.
Actually, York and Petty married twice. According to Petty, their first wedding was held in Vegas just to settle the legal side of things. They wedded again a few weeks later in a bigger ceremony in their Malibu home, which was officiated by the pop star, Little Richard.
In a 45 year long career, Tom Petty collaborated with artists such as Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks and many more. Petty suffered a cardiac arrest and Dana was the one to call the ambulance and while waiting for it to arrive, Dana performed a CPR to revive her husband.
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, the death of Tom Petty was caused by mixed drug toxicity. Tom Petty died on October 2, 2017, at the age of 67.
Even though Dana has not revealed her net worth and salary publicly, we can estimate that, as the wife of American singer Tom Petty, she must have received a decent amount as her late husband Tom Petty’s net worth is around $95 million.
