Reba McEntire is a country music legend, but before she began her singing career, she worked on her family's ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma.

“Growing up, I didn’t play a cowgirl, I was one,” explained Reba, 69, saying everyone in her family was actively involved in running the ranch.

“My family lived on an 8,000-acre ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, where my father ran several thousand head of cattle per year.

“I started working on our ranch when I was five years old,” recalled the Fancy singer, who performed with Post Malone at the ACM Awards.

“When Daddy needed a driver to haul grain in his pickup truck, he would come and get whoever was there. '

Reba McEntire is a country music legend, but before she began her singing career, she worked on her family's ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma

Seen as a young woman on her family's ranch

“I would be on my knees operating the steering wheel.” “He put the truck in grandma gear, jumped out and off we went,” the “Happy's Place” star told the Wall Street Journal.

Reba and her two sisters Alice and Susie and her brother Pake lived with their parents Clark and Jackie in a small gray house.

There was only one bathroom, but the Turn on the Radio hitmaker said that wasn't a problem.

“With the girls – Alice, Susie, Mum and I – we were all in there at the same time and there was never a problem,” The Voice judge shared.

“We loved each other’s company,” she added, noting that their ranch was so remote that there were no children nearby to play with and that the siblings became extraordinarily close.

In addition to being a rancher, Reba's father competed in rodeos and toured the rodeo circuit from June to September, so the management of the ranch fell to her and her siblings.

“Dad was away at the rodeo between June and September,” she explained. “While he was away, it was our job to run the big ranch.”

“We also had a hired hand, Louie Sandman, and grandfather, John McEntire, who was a champion steer roper himself.”

On the set of one of her music videos

“Growing up, I didn’t play a cowgirl, I was one,” explained Reba, 69, saying everyone in her family was actively involved in running the ranch. Seen here on October 28, 2024

“I started working on our ranch when I was five years old,” recalled the Fancy singer, who performed with Post Malone at the ACM Awards. “My family lived on an 8,000-acre ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, where my father ran several thousand head of cattle per year.”

“When Dad needed a driver to haul grain in his pickup truck, he would come and get whoever was there.”

Reba and her siblings woke up very early to do their chores on the ranch before going to school.

“As teenagers, Pake and I would gather the horses in a 100-acre field in the fall while Daddy prepared breakfast,” McEntire remembers.

“We saddled them up and headed back to eat.” “We then jumped in the truck, loaded the horses onto a trailer and helped guide the cattle to the area where they would be weighed and sold,” she said.

“Then we went to school with Mom. She was the school secretary.”