On This Date in Country Music History: Reba McEntire's Most Beautiful Full-Circle Moment

Seventeen years ago today, Reba McEntire drove to a ranch in Bushyhead, Oklahoma, and stood beside a flag-draped casket in the Texas heat to sing the national anthem one more time for Clem McSpadden. She had sung it for him once before. That was in 1974. He had paid her $10 for the job. It launched the most decorated career in the history of female country music.

The $10 Gig That Changed Everything

Reba McEntire grew up on her family's 8,000-acre cattle ranch in Chockie, Oklahoma, the daughter of Clark McEntire, a three-time World Champion Steer Roper, and Jacqueline McEntire, a schoolteacher who taught all her children to sing in harmony on the long drives between rodeo stops. By the time Reba reached college at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, she was studying to become an elementary school teacher. Music was something she loved. A career was something she had not fully considered.

Her father changed that. "Reba, why don't you get you a job if you're gonna go up there?" he told her when she mentioned she was heading to Oklahoma City for the National Finals Rodeo, where she was planning to watch barrel racing with friends. When she asked doing what, he said, "Singing the national anthem."

She called family friend Clem McSpadden, a rodeo announcer, former Oklahoma state senator, and former U.S. Congressman who was also the grandnephew of Will Rogers. McSpadden had spent decades as one of the most respected voices in professional rodeo, announcing the National Finals Rodeo, the Calgary Stampede, and the Canadian Finals Rodeo. He got her the job. Clem McSpadden hired Reba McEntire to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the 1974 National Finals Rodeo in front of 9,000 people each night for ten performances. Her pay was $10.

"I sing the national anthem in the key of D," she told the conductor at rehearsal, who insisted on a different key. McSpadden stepped in and made sure it was done in the key that suited her voice. In a detail that captures everything about who Clem McSpadden was, he went to bat for an unknown college girl because he simply thought it was the right thing to do.

The Night That Led to Everything Else

After one of those performances, country artist Red Steagall happened to be in the audience. He was impressed enough to invite Reba and her family to a hotel party that same week, where she performed an a cappella version of Dolly Parton's "Joshua" in the middle of a crowded suite. Steagall could not take on all three McEntire siblings as Reba's mother had hoped, but he called back in January 1975 and said simply, "I could take Reba. She's got something a little different." Eleven months after that National Finals Rodeo gig, Reba McEntire had a record deal with Mercury Records.

She sang the anthem at the National Finals Rodeo from 1974 until the event moved to Las Vegas in 1984. She sang it at the 1985 World Series. She sang it at Super Bowl LVIII in 2024. But no performance of it meant quite what the one on July 12, 2008 meant.

Coming Home to Say Goodbye

Clem McSpadden died on July 7, 2008, at the age of 82, after a lengthy battle with cancer. His services were held at his Tub Handle Ranch in Bushyhead, Oklahoma, near the hometown where he had spent his life. His flag-draped casket had lain in state at the Oklahoma State Capitol the day before, with his familiar gray cowboy hat resting on top.

Reba McEntire sang the national anthem at his funeral. The woman he had hired for $10 to sing it in front of 9,000 people had become one of the best-known voices in the world. She came back to Oklahoma to sing it one final time for the man who had given her the chance.

There are a lot of full-circle moments in country music. Very few of them are this quiet, or this meaningful, or this perfectly Oklahoma. Read Reba's full bio on our website.