Biography of Reba McEntire: Her Career, Songs, Movies, Faith & Net Worth

Reba McEntire, also known as just Reba, is an American country singer and actress who was born on March 28, 1955. She is known as “The Queen of Country” and has sold over 75 million records globally. She has had more than 100 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart since the 1970s, 25 of which peaked at number one. McEntire is a television and movie actress who starred in the six-season television series Reba. She also owns a number of companies, such as a clothing company and a restaurant.

She grew up in Oklahoma and was one of four children. She and her siblings founded the Singing McEntires with the assistance of her mother, and they recorded for a minor label and performed at local events. McEntire went on to study to become a public school teacher at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. She also kept performing from time to time, and country singer Red Steagall was seen singing at a rodeo event. Steagall helped McEntire land a country music recording deal with PolyGram/Mercury Records in 1975 after being drawn to her vocal talent.

A number of McEntire’s albums and singles were issued by PolyGram/Mercury throughout the ensuing years, although they were not very successful. Several top-10 country hits, such as “(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven,” “I’m Not That Lonely Yet,” and her first number one, “Can’t Even Get the Blues,” helped McEntire’s music acquire more traction in the early 1980s. However, McEntire signed with MCA Records in 1984 after growing dissatisfied with her career path. With two number-one country songs and a hint of a more conventional musical style, her second MCA album, My Kind of Country (1984), became her breakthrough effort. McEntire had ten additional number-one country hits and seven more studio albums during the 1980s.

“One Promise Too Late,” “The Last One to Know,” and the Grammy Award-winning song “Whoever’s in New England” were among her number-one hits.

Eight members of McEntire’s band perished in a plane crash in San Diego, California, in 1991. McEntire’s highly regarded CD, For My Broken Heart, is her best-selling record to date as a result of the event. In the 1990s, she released a number of commercially successful albums, such as If You See Him (1998), What If It’s You (1996), and Read My Mind (1994).

These albums included the number-one country hits “How Was I to Know,” “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” and “If You See Him/If You See Her,” a duet with Brooks and Dunn. Tremors was McEntire’s cinematic debut in January 1990, marking the start of her acting career. She portrayed Annie Oakley in the Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun in 2001. She starred in the TV sitcom Reba, which was introduced by The WB the same year. She most recently starred in the third season of Big Sky and as June Ballard in a cameo appearance on Young Sheldon. McEntire has been as a coach on four seasons of The Voice, a reality competition show, from 2023. She presently appears in Happy’s Place, an NBC sitcom.

Early Life & Education

Despite growing up on a ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, Reba McEntire was born in 1955 in McAlester, Oklahoma. She was the third of four children born to Jacqueline McEntire (1926–2020) and Clark (1927–2014). Her father won the title three times (1957, 1958, and 1961), and her grandpa, John Wesley McEntire, was a world-champion steer roper in 1934. Instead of pursuing her dream of becoming a country singer, Jacqueline McEntire became a secretary, librarian, and public school teacher. Her father struggled to show affection, whereas her mother was gentle and affectionate. In her memoirs, she said, “I used to regret that Daddy never told us that he loved us when we were growing up.” A cattle ranch belonged to the McEntire family. Every member of the family helped to manage the cattle operation. Before and after school, the McEntire kids assisted with ranch work. Bulls were castrated and given worm medication as part of this.

Encouraged by their mother, the McEntire siblings also became interested in singing. Jacqueline McEntire trained her kids to sing in unison when they were traveling by automobile to their father’s rodeo engagements. After that, young Reba began giving school performances. She sang “Away in a Manger” at an elementary school Christmas pageant in the first grade. She joined the 4-H club in fifth grade, and her performance of “My Sweet Little Alice Blue Gown” earned her first place in the Junior Act Division. She ran track and played basketball as well. She went to a basketball camp some summers. She also picked up guitar and piano. She also trained to become a barrel racer after becoming interested in the rodeo.

The McEntire siblings had been performing regularly by high school. They dubbed themselves the Singing McEntires, and together they constituted a trio. The trio’s single “The Ballad of John McEntire” about their well-known grandpa was released in 1971. It was released in limited quantities around the region after being pressed as a single by a local label. Eventually, the three added a supporting band, which they played at local events. The Kiowa High School Cowboy Band was the group’s subsequent moniker. Additionally, they performed for paid at dance hall clubs in the neighboring city of Oklahoma City. “We were a bunch of kids barely in puberty who didn’t get to bed until almost daylight after some of our shows,” McEntire recalled. After Reba’s brother graduated from high school, the band broke up. McEntire received his diploma from Kiowa High School in 1973.

Reba McEntire attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University for college after graduating from high school. She minored in music while majoring in elementary education. She earned a bachelor’s degree after completing student teaching. During her undergraduate years, she also kept helping out on her family’s ranch. McEntire was persuaded by her father to accept a job offer to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City in 1974. She reached out to Clem McSpadden, a rodeo announcer and family friend, who assisted her in landing the job. Country music artist Red Steagall heard McEntire after one of her shows and was enthralled with her vocals. Later that same week, Reba McEntire, her mother, and her brothers joined him for a hotel party. Reba sang a rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Joshua” a cappella at the hotel. Steagall was asked by Jacqueline McEntire whether he could assist in securing recording contracts for all of her children. “I can’t take all three,” Steagall told her in early 1975 after returning to Nashville. I could take Reba, though. She has a slightly unique quality.

In order to record a demonstration tape that Steagall intended to send to record labels, McEntire traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, in March 1975 with her mother. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to pursue a career in professional country music at the beginning of the trip. In her memoirs, McEntire claimed that she kept coming up with reasons why her mother should stop the automobile rather than go to Nashville. Jacqueline McEntire saw her daughter’s worry and said, “Now, Reba, let me tell you something.” We don’t have to go to Nashville if you don’t want to. But you’re helping me realize all of my dreams.” She changed her mind throughout the chat, and they proceeded to Nashville.

Glenn Keener of PolyGram/Mercury Records listened to McEntire’s demo tape and expressed interest in signing her to a Nashville deal. Keener took the tapes of McEntire and another woman to the headquarters of PolyGram in Chicago. Keener was told by the label that he could only sign one female artist. McEntire told Entertainment Weekly, “He handed ’em mine after looking at the two tapes in his hand.”

Music Career

1976–1983: Career launch at Mercury

PolyGram/Mercury Records signed McEntire to a country music recording contract in November 1975. In January 1976, she recorded her first songs for the company. Glenn Keener produced her, and a Countrypolitan arrangement featuring a string section supported her. The 1976 single “I Don’t Want to Be a One Night Stand” was McEntire’s first single. The song only peaked at number 88 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs list in May, failing to become a significant smash. The Billboard country singles “(There’s Nothing Like the Love) Between a Woman and Man” and “Glad I Waited Just for You” followed, both of which had modest charting positions. In 1977, Mercury released her debut album of the same name. Greg Adams of AllMusic compared the album to Tammy Wynette and Barbara Mandrell’s country crossover sound in his review. Reba McEntire also started doing more shows and going on tours. She frequently relied on house bands to accompany her because she didn’t have her own band. Sometimes McEntire had to occupy her time onstage with jokes because the supporting bands were unfamiliar with country music.

By 1978, McEntire’s career had taken off. She and country music musician Jacky Ward worked together on two singles that year. The pair’s double-sided release of “Three Sheets in the Wind” and “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” earned her first country chart top-20 hit. McEntire inherited producer Jerry Kennedy after Glenn Keener departed the PolyGram/Mercury lineup. Out of a Dream (1979), Kennedy’s second studio album, was produced. Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams” rendition on the album became her first solo top-20 success. The album also gave birth to four more top-40 country hits. Sister Susie and brother Pake McEntire joined McEntire in her own band around 1980.

She brought on a new manager as well. A three-car caravan with a horse trailer for carrying instruments was used by McEntire and her band to travel to performances. Later, she was transferred to a bus known as Silver Eagle, which frequently broke down. She achieved her first top-10 hit on the country music chart with “(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven” in 1980. It was featured on Feel the Fire, her third studio album, which came out in October.

1984–1990: Breakthrough

In 1984, Reba McEntire released her seventh studio album, Just a Little Love, after signing with MCA Records. The disk was originally supposed to be produced by Harold Shedd, but McEntire turned down his request for a country-pop arrangement. Rather, the project was produced by Norro Wilson. She was unhappy with the record’s production and the lack of control over the material, even though it produced a top-10 success. Jimmy Bowen, the president of the MCA, advised her to select her own tunes to record instead. She listened to a variety of songs from publishing companies for several days while accompanied by Don “Dirt” Lanier. She eventually discovered the songs “Somebody Should Leave” by Harlan Howard and “How Blue” by Jon Moffat.

They were released as singles, peaked at number one on the country music list, and then had an appearance on My Kind of Country in 1984. A number of covers of well-known country songs by Ray Price, Charley Pride, and Connie Smith were also included in the compilation. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic rated the disk 4.5 stars. On the album, McEntire was referred to by Billboard magazine as “the finest woman country singer since Kitty Wells.” The CD “represents a victory for McEntire,” according to United Press. She has taken charge of her career and taken back command of both her life and her songs. McEntire’s breakthrough recording, the album, helped her win the Country Music Association’s 1984 Female Vocalist of the Year award.

Have I Got a Deal for You, released in 1985, was her subsequent MCA album. Following the same classic country format as its predecessor, the project did the same. Jimmy Bowen produced it, and McEntire herself received co-production credits. The album’s title tune and McEntire’s own composition “Only in My Mind” both made it to the Billboard country top 10. McEntire sang the National Anthem during the opening game of the 1985 World Series on October 19, just a few months later. Her eighth studio album, Whoever’s in New England, was released in February 1986. McEntire and co-producer Jimmy Bowen combined a fresh, contemporary sound with a traditional country flair on the song.

Kurt Wolff, the author, characterized the production of the title track as “bigger and sentimentalism more obvious, even manipulative”. The title track, which was released as the lead single, won Reba McEntire the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and peaked at number one on the Billboard country chart. The album itself became her first number one album in the Billboard Country Albums survey. The Recording Industry Association of America eventually certified it platinum after one million copies were sold.

1991: Plane crash and For My Broken Heart

McEntire’s touring schedule grew busier in the late 1980s. She and her band started taking private planes to shows instead of lengthy bus rides. The 1991 leg of McEntire’s tour began with stops in Alaska, Saginaw, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a private performance for IBM in San Diego, California. McEntire’s band was to be transported by two flights that were planned to depart San Diego. The following day, McEntire, her husband, and her stylist were scheduled to board a different plane. The second plane’s pilot, Roger Woolsey, called McEntire in the wee hours of March 16, 1991, to wake him up. When McEntire’s spouse answered the phone, he learned that one of the aircraft had crashed. After both planes successfully took off, the wing of one of them struck the side of San Diego’s Otay Mountain, killing all occupants.

For My Broken Heart, McEntire’s sixteenth album, is dedicated to the departed members of her touring band. According to Entertainment Weekly’s Alanna Nash, it featured songs on “all measure of suffering” and melancholy and lost love when it was released in October 1991. According to Nash, McEntire “still hits her stride with the more traditional songs of emotional turmoil, above all combining a spectacular vocal performance with a terrific song on ‘Buying Her Roses’, a wife’s head-spinning discovery of her husband’s other woman.” On the Billboard Top Country Albums list, the disc reached its highest position at number three. At number 13, it also became her highest-charting release to date on the Billboard 200.

Later, it became her best-selling album to date, selling over four million copies in the US. “Is There Life Out There” and the album’s title tune both peaked at number one on the Billboard country singles chart. Furthermore, McEntire’s rendition of “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” and “The Greatest Man I Never Knew” both became huge country singles.

2017–present: New beginnings in her 60s

Following her divorce from ex-husband Narvel Blackstock, McEntire became her own manager and took charge of her career. She brought on Carolyn Snell, who has worked for McEntire for nine years, Leslie Matthews as brand manager, and Justin McIntosh of Starstruck Entertainment. Reba’s Business Inc. (RBI) was established by them. She relocated her business to Green Hills, Nashville, leaving the building where she and Blackstock had previously operated.

Reba McEntire revealed the release date of Sing It Now: Songs of Faith & Hope, her debut gospel album, on December 15, 2016. It comes on two disks and was released on February 3, 2017 by Nash Icon/Rockin’ R Records. Traditional hymns are on disc one, while original music is on disc two. Kelly Clarkson and Trisha Yearwood’s song “Softly and Tenderly” was the first one off the album to be released. “In the Garden/Wonderful Peace” is another song on the album that features the Isaacs. The album was produced by the Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus. “Back to God” is the album’s first single.

McEntire received the Grammy Award for Best Roots Gospel Album in January 2018. This was her first Grammy Award win since 1994 and her first nomination since 2007. In March, she co-headlined the UK’s C2C: Country to Country festival with Brad Paisley and the Zac Brown Band. Due to its limited distribution in 2016, My Kind of Christmas was re-released on October 13, 2017, via her website and iTunes. This time, it featured tracks by Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Darius Rucker, and Lauren Daigle. McEntire, together with Cher, Philip Glass, and Wayne Shorter, was named one of four honorees at the 41st annual Kennedy Center Honors in July 2018. The event took place on December 2, 2018, and on December 26, 2018, CBS aired the program.

On April 5, 2019, McEntire’s 29th studio album, Stronger Than the Truth, was released. On April 8, 2019, McEntire made a comeback as presenter of the 54th Academy of Country Music Awards. After departing from MCA Nashville in November 2008, McEntire returned to the company on February 20, 2020, when she made an unexpected appearance at the Country Radio Seminar and said she had signed a new record deal. In November 2020, McEntire and Darius Rucker co-hosted the 54th Annual Country Music Association Awards. In the past, McEntire has hosted with Carrie Underwood and Dolly Parton in 2019, Vince Gill in 1992, herself as the second female host, and Randy Travis in 1990.

Reba McEntire announced on October 3, 2022, that she would play Madison Square Garden in New York City for the first time as part of her Reba: Live in Concert tour, which would run through 2023. The song “Does He Love You” was published in 2021 in a duet with Dolly Parton. During Super Bowl LVIII in 2024, McEntire performed the national anthem while being accompanied in American Sign Language by deaf actor Daniel Durant.

Reba McEntire Personal Life and Religion

Being a Christian, Reba McEntire has said that her belief in God has greatly benefited her throughout her life.

Her siblings have both worked in the music business. In the late 1980s, her brother Pake tried his hand at country music but left after a short time and went back to Oklahoma. In addition to continuing to rodeo, he owns and runs a 1,000-acre (400 ha) ranch close to Coalgate, Oklahoma. Along with her husband, her sister Susie McEntire-Eaton (Martha Susan “Susie” McEntire-Eaton, previously Luchsinger) is a well-known Christian music singer who gives speeches and performs all over the nation. Alice Foran, a retired social worker who lives in Lane, Oklahoma, is her older sister. Calamity McEntire, her niece, is the associate head coach of the women’s basketball team at the University of Illinois.

Philantrophy

She established Reba’s Ranch House, an extended-stay facility for family members of patients receiving treatment at Texoma Medical Center or other local facilities, in Denison, Texas, in 1992.

She has actively supported numerous philanthropic organizations during her career, including as Feeding America, the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, and Celebrity Fight Night. For her work, she has received the Andrea Bocelli Foundation Humanitarian Award, the ACM Home Depot Humanitarian Award, and the Minnie Pearl Award. She received the Horatio Alger Award for Charity Work and Education in 2018. The prize, which is named for the “rags to riches” author, honors tenacity and generosity.

Reba McEntire Net Worth

With a net worth of $95 million, Reba McEntire is an American country music singer, songwriter, producer, and actor.

Discography