Country music superstar Reba McEntire has enjoyed huge commercial and critical success in 1980s and 90s. She proved to be a key figure in the successful crossover of country music into the pop mainstream, and later showed herself a capable character player in features and on TV. The product of a small-town upbringing in Oklahoma, McEntire competed on the rodeo circuit with her family and sang with her brother and sister as part of the teenaged Singing McEntires until she was signed by Mercury Records in the mid-70s. Achieving success by the end of the decade, she brought her rich, throbbing
Grew up on a ranch owned by her father located just outside Kiowa, Oklahoma (population 873)
Worked on the WPRA rodeo circuit for ten years, quarter-horse barrel racing
1974
Sang the national anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City; was heard by Nashville-based songwriter Red Steagall, who convinced McEntire's mother to cut a demo tape
Signed by Mercury Records
1982
Earliest TV appearances include a cameo as herself in the CBS TV-movie, "Country Gold"
