Back before she was one of the most iconic singers in country music, Reba McEntire had very humble beginnings. She grew up on a rural farm, helping her family with his cattle. In fact, it reminds me a bit of how my own grandmother grew up.
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Don't get me wrong, there are differences. McEntire grew up on an 8,000 acre ranch. My grandmother grew up on a smaller farm owned by someone else. She was very much a sharecropper. But both McEntire and my grandmother both learned work ethic from an early age. It's something that they both carried for the rest of their lives.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, McEntire talks being a real cowgirl. "I didn't play cowgirl growing up," McEntire said. "I was one."
She continued, "My family lived on an 8,000-acre ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, where my father ran several thousand cattle a year. I began working on our ranch at age 5. If Daddy needed a driver to move grain in his pickup truck, he came in and got whoever was there. "
Reba McEntire Looks Back
She added, "I was so little that Daddy put a 50-pound feed sack on the driver's seat before putting me on top of it. I'd be on my knees to work the steering wheel. He'd put the truck in granny gear, jump out and off I'd go."
Similarly, my grandmother started working on the farm almost as soon as she could walk. She would help pick cotton and crops and work all days in the field. Similar to McEntire, my grandmother lived in a very small house and had to often share things with her siblings.
"With the girls - Alice, Susie, Mama and myself, we'd all be in there at the same time, and there never was a problem," McEntire said of sharing their one bathroom. "We loved each other's company."
They often ended up playing with each other.
"There were no kids nearby to play with, so we just had each other," she said.
Where their stories differ is that my grandmother never had the chance to go to rodeos or eventually to fall in love with singing. She fell victim to the same trap as many women of her era — lack of opportunities. My grandmother only escaped her family farm by eventually marrying.
I believe it shows just how inspirational McEntire's story is. She was able to go out there and follow her dreams and actually become an inspiration to others.
