What We Know About Reba McEntire's Childhood

Country music superstar and "The Voice" coach Reba McEntire is one of the most beloved and acclaimed performers of her generation. With numerous Grammys , awards from the Country Music Association, and other awards, it's no wonder McEntire is known as the Queen of Country. However, she wasn't always the successful entertainer that she later became. While she enjoyed an incredibly lavish life as an adult, McEntire came from humble beginnings in Chockie, Oklahoma.

McEntire was raised on a cattle ranch in the Sooner State by her parents, alongside a brother and two sisters. Her mother was a schoolteacher, and her father was a champion steer roper. In her 1994 book "Reba: My Story," McEntire wrote that she worked on the ranch beginning at age six. Though her parents wanted her to work with cattle for a career, they did encourage her to sing. They also enjoyed music and dancing as a family, laying the foundation for their daughter's future success.

Country music legend Reba McEntire's father Clark found success as a rodeo star in her home state of Oklahoma, winning the Steer Roping Championship three times. He was such an accomplished performer that he was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. Reba's grandfather, Jon Wesley McEntire, was also in the rodeo and won the Steer Roping Championship himself.

While becoming a rodeo star ultimately wasn't in the cards for Reba, she did travel with her father during his career, and competed as well, most notably in barrel racing events. During a 2024 appearance on "The Tonight Show," Jimmy Fallon asked Reba how far she got in the sport, and she jokingly answered, "Not very far." It was during Reba's time in the rodeo when Clark's attitude toward her became an issue. Much of his support for her singing career often came through backhanded compliments, which sent mixed signals to his daughter.

According to a 2019 Washington Post article, Clark McEntire insinuated that Reba was wasting her time focusing on anything other than music. She revealed that he had once asked, "Reba, why do you always want to do something you're not good at?" 

Though Reba McEntire fell in love with music early on, she was usually busy with her schoolwork, as a student at Kiowa High School in Kiowa, Oklahoma. In addition to her studies, McEntire was active in track and basketball, while continuing to work on her family's ranch every day.

In an October 2024 interview with The Wall Street Journal, McEntire talked about her mornings as a teenager before school, which began with breakfast, and then herding horses into a 40-acre area. "After, we'd hop in the truck, load the horses into a trailer and take them to help steer the cattle into the area where they would be weighed and sold." She would then get a ride to school with her mom Jacqueline, who was the secretary at the time.

After graduation, McEntire attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education, with a minor in music. While it appeared as though she could eventually become a teacher full time, her hall of fame music career was just over the horizon.

Growing up in rural Oklahoma, Reba McEntire was one of four kids, a situation that wasn't always easy for her. So she decided at an early age to tap into music as a means to an end. "Best attention I ever got," she said, according to The Washington Post. "I was the third of four kids. I wasn't a boy. I wasn't the youngest or the oldest. I was in the middle ... I had to fight for attention."

That attention came from her mother and father, both of whom had an odd way of dealing with her. Details of those experiences in McEntire's early life are indeed tragic, as her father Clark was seen as cruel, thanks to his gruff demeanor and blunt approach toward his daughter. Meanwhile, McEntire's mother Jacqueline appeared to put undue pressure on her to succeed as a singer.

McEntire told the "Today Show" in 2023 that her mother never achieved her own dreams of becoming a country music star. So when Jacqueline first took her daughter to Nashville, she was finally honest with Reba about how she felt. "And she said 'If you don't want to do this, let's just go on home. But if we go on to Nashville, I'll be living all my dreams through you.'"

Reba McEntire found a love for music at a young age alongside her siblings. While a successful career in not only music but TV awaited her, McEntire first found her voice singing with her brother Pake and her sisters Susie and Alice.

The kids began performing in public as the Singing McEntires, formed by their mother Jacqueline. The group would appear together at small events, with Pake and Susie following Reba to Nashville in later years. "Pake played acoustic rhythm guitar and sang melody," Reba said via People. "I sang the high harmony, and Susie sang the low." Both Pake and Susie enjoyed music so much that they pursued it as a career themselves, providing background vocals for Reba in the early years of her career.

Pake went on to have a career as a solo star in his own right and also became a rodeo champion like his father and grandfather. Susie became a Christian music artist, winning numerous awards in the 1990s and early 2000s. Meanwhile, Alice stayed away from the fame, eventually becoming a social worker in Atoka, Oklahoma.

Reba McEntire'slove of music set her on a path to success not only as a singer, but as a TV star as well. However, without the rodeo, McEntire may never have realized her dreams.

It was at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City in 1974 that McEntire got her big break. Her performance of the National Anthem at that event caught the attention of country singer Red Steagall, who helped open doors for McEntire. From that point, she and her mother made the trip to Nashville, and McEntire's career began. But she never forgot her rodeo roots.

In her 2023 book, "Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots," McEntire wrote about how rodeo helped form her career as a country music star. "The kind of drive I learned on horseback set me up for building a career in music," she wrote, via NBC. "In this industry, the key thing to do is just to keep going and keep racing against yourself." McEntire also stated that it was the belief she had in herself that contributed to her success, and the same was true of other talented people. "Or maybe it's those who are just too stubborn to know when to quit."