Everything We Know About Reba McEntire's Parents

Reba McEntire is known to the world as a legendary country singer, but at her core, she is the third of Jackie and Clark McEntire's four children. And her parents had a front row seat of watching Reba grow into the powerhouse country queen that she has become. Reba's humble beginnings in Oklahoma were much different from the lavish life she is living today, as her mother, Jackie, was a school teacher while her father, Clark, was a cattleman. Clark made headlines as a steer roping champion and a member of the Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Reba explained how she got her competitive nature from her three-time-champion father. "He made a living by competing and so have I. The difference in his competition and mine was his winning was determined by a stop watch. Mine was voted on," she related in an interview with The Oklahoman. "As I've grown older, I find I listen like Daddy did before I make a decision. I get all the information first."

Upon her father's passing in 2014, Reba posted a stirring tribute to him on Instagram. "He was a born and bred cowboy through and through," she wrote as a caption to a picture of her parents on horseback. "He had been sick for five years. It makes total sense to me, he always told us kids never to run your horse to the barn. He was just taking his time to go on home."

Reba McEntire had a close bond with her mother, Jackie McEntire. (Jackie even made a cameo appearance on Reba's sitcom in 2005!) Reba has credited her mom as her greatest inspiration for singing and as one of the first people to recognize her musical talent as a child. In fact, her mother was the one who taught her and her siblings how to sing. "She was really encouraging for all of us kids, whatever we wanted to do," Reba said during a 2023 appearance on "Today with Hoda and Jenna." Jackie helped Reba transform into a vocalist by creating "The Singing McEntires" — a trio consisting of Reba, her older brother, and her younger sister — when she was just a teenager, performing songs together at local rodeos.

When her mother passed away in 2020, Reba, in the wake of the tragedy, contemplated taking a step back from the microphone. In her interview on "Today," Reba admitted, "I always did it for Mama." Reba's sister, Susie, insisted that the country icon would find her passion again and return to the stage, which the red-haired superstar ultimately did.

In tribute to her late mother, Reba released the song "Seven Minutes in Heaven" in 2023. The heartfelt lyrics depict the singer wanting to have one more conversation with her dearly departed loved one. She sings, "I wouldn't spend all my seconds asking God questions / 'Cause He knows I'll be back soon / If I had seven minutes in Heaven / I'd spend them all with you."