On This Day in Country Music History: A Young Reba McEntire Married a Rodeo Champion

Forty-nine years ago today, on June 21, 1976, a twenty-one-year-old country singer who had not yet had her breakthrough hit walked down the aisle on a ranch in Stringtown, Oklahoma. Reba McEntire married champion steer wrestler Charlie Battles, who was ten years her senior. Charlie was already divorced and raising two sons, Lance and Coty, when he swept Reba off her feet.

The two had met in the world they both knew best. Reba had started singing at rodeo events, and Charlie was already a respected steer wrestler in that same circuit. They bonded over a shared love of ranch life, horses, and rodeo competition. "I loved Charlie with all my heart, I wanted to marry him," McEntire later told People. "We had a lot of fun. We rodeoed together, we ranched together."

They settled into ranch life in Stringtown, with Reba balancing chores and stepmother duties against the early grind of a music career that was just beginning to take shape. Her first single barely cracked the charts. Nobody could have predicted what was coming.

As her career caught fire through the 1980s, the marriage could not keep pace. She had grown tired of the fights, the jealousy, and disagreements over money. She packed up, left Oklahoma behind, and filed for divorce. Reba later reflected honestly on the strain: "I guess I chose my career over my marriage." The marriage ended in 1987 after eleven years.

What came after is one of the great runs in American music history. Three Grammys. A Kennedy Center Honor. A hit television series. A Broadway run. Dozens of number one singles. The girl from the Stringtown ranch became the undisputed Queen of Country Music.

Her personal life has continued to evolve in its own time. McEntire married music manager Narvel Blackstock in 1989, a marriage that lasted 26 years before ending in divorce in 2015. She and actor Rex Linn first met back in 1991 on the set of a Kenny Rogers movie, but did not begin dating until 2020, after reconnecting on the set of Young Sheldon. "It was just like a magnet," McEntire has said of their reunion.

The two got engaged on Christmas Eve 2024, and McEntire has been open about what this chapter means to her. "I'm 70 years old, 50 years in the business, and I'm happier now than I've ever been in my life," she told USA Today. "God saved the best for last." The couple now co-star together on the NBC sitcom Happy's Place, playing onscreen partners in addition to their real one.

From a ranch wedding in Stringtown in 1976 to a Christmas Eve engagement nearly fifty years later, Reba's love story has had its share of chapters. By all accounts, she finally found the right one. Read her full bio on our website.