Reba McEntire Turns 70 Today: Here Are 4 Things Most People Don’t Know About Her
Happy birthday to Reba McEntire! McEntire turns 70 on March 28. Celebrate her birthday with these four little-known facts about McEntire’s life and career.
1. Reba McEntire’s first visit to the Grand Ole Opry was memorable for all the wrong reasons.
McEntire grew up in a musical household, which is why she was so excited to visit the Grand Ole Opry for the first time. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as well as she hoped, since McEntire wasn’t feeling well the day of the now infamous visit.
“When I was seven years old, we had come down to Nashville and we were gonna go to the Grand Ole Opry,” McEntire recalls (via The Boot). “All of us got sick. I wound up vomiting on the very front steps of the Grand Ole Opry. A gentleman walked over and handed me his napkin. I wiped my mouth off and handed [the napkin] back to him. He said, ‘You keep it!’ So, the Ryman Auditorium is very special to me.”
2. Reba McEntire has a degree in elementary education.
McEntire graduated from Oklahoma State University in 1976, with a degree in elementary education. Fortunately for country music fans, her love of music won out. McEntire minored in music, but was discovered by Red Steagall while singing the national anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma. Her first single, “I Don’t Want To Be A One Night Stand,” came out the same year that she graduated from college.
3. Reba McEntire was almost in the movie, Titanic.
McEntire could have been in the blockbuster Titanic film instead of Kathy Bates. By the time Titanic was filming, McEntire had already appeared in several movies. But she ultimately turned it down, for one very important reason.
“We were on tour and I had a lot of people on the payroll,” McEntire remembers (via Entertainment Weekly). “We had these three months already scheduled to do the movie, and then they got behind on scheduling and said ‘We’ll have to move it to this time.’ So we couldn’t reschedule all the arenas and everything.”
4. Reba McEntire’s “Does He Love You” duet almost had another singer besides Linda Davis.
McEntire had a big, big hit in 1993 with “Does He Love You,” her duet with Linda Davis. Davis was singing in McEntire’s band at the time, and recorded the demo, with the intention of the song being pitched to a bigger, more-established artist. But McEntire liked how Davis sounded on the song so much that she decided to keep her on the track.
McEntire fulfilled a big dream in 2021, when she recorded the song again, this time with Parton. McEntire says being able to sing with Parton is a “dream come true.”
