After spending 26 years married to her manager, Narvel Blackstock, and more than three decades building a country music empire together, Reba McEntire faced a complication that went far beyond the divorce itself. When Narvel reportedly began a new relationship with a Nashville real estate agent who had once been part of Reba’s own inner circle, fans expected fireworks. Instead, the country legend responded in a way that left the music world surprised. The relationship between Reba and Narvel began in 1980 when he joined her band as a steel guitarist.
What started as a professional connection slowly deepened over the years, and Narvel eventually became her manager. In 1989, the couple married in a private ceremony on a boat in Lake Tahoe, beginning what would become one of the most enduring partnerships in country music. Together, they welcomed their son, Shelby Blackstock, and Reba became a stepmother to Narvel’s three children from his previous marriage. Their lives became so intertwined that it was often difficult to tell where their marriage ended and their business partnership began.
Narvel guided her career decisions, stood beside her through major milestones, and supported her during moments when she doubted whether her career still had a future. By the time they announced their separation on August 3rd, 2015, the couple had spent 35 years working together. The divorce was officially finalized on October 28th of that year. Despite the length of their relationship, Reba confirmed that the split was amicable, telling fans they remained friends and refusing to turn the breakup into a public feud.
Years later, Reba admitted that the divorce was not something she had wanted. In 2016, she explained that she hadn’t wished for the marriage to end and that adjusting to life after Narvel had been extremely difficult. Still, she understood that sometimes a relationship reaches a point where staying together no longer makes either person happy, and she decided she had to accept what was happening and move forward. Then came the news that made the aftermath even more complicated.
By January 2016, reports surfaced that Narvel was dating Laura Putty Stroud, a Nashville real estate agent who had been close to both Narvel and Reba before the divorce. Old photographs showed Reba and Stroud attending a Katy Perry concert together in 2014, posing playfully in colorful wigs. Reba had also publicly thanked Stroud for taking photographs at Shelby’s racing events. At the time, Stroud appeared to be simply a friend within Reba’s circle.
The revelation that Narvel had moved on with someone from that circle could easily have turned a private divorce into a very public drama. But Reba never launched a public attack against Stroud, and she did not publicly dissect Narvel’s new romance. Instead, she continued to emphasize the importance of staying civil with the man she had spent most of her adult life beside. There was another reason Reba couldn’t simply erase Narvel from her life.
Their divorce did not mean she stopped being part of the family they had built together. She remained close to their son Shelby and continued to maintain relationships with Narvel’s other children, including Brandon Blackstock. Reba made it clear that divorce doesn’t mean divorcing the children, and that those relationships deserve to survive regardless of what happened between the adults. Reba’s decision to remain measured may have been rooted in that understanding.
Whatever she privately felt about Narvel moving on with someone from their shared circle, she understood that anger could easily damage relationships that still mattered to her. Instead of giving the public the explosive reaction many might have expected, she chose silence, dignity, and distance. The road to that point was shaped by decades of personal and professional history. Before Narvel, Reba’s life was defined by a different kind of journey.
She grew up as a ranch girl in Chockie, Oklahoma, born in McAlester in 1955, the third of four children. Her family had deep roots in rodeo, with her grandfather becoming a world champion steer roper in 1934 and her father earning the same title three times. Reba and her siblings were expected to work on the family ranch before and after school, giving her an early understanding of discipline. Music was also part of the household.
Her mother, Jacqueline, had once dreamed of becoming a country singer herself, and although she became a teacher, librarian, and secretary, she passed her love of music on to her children, teaching them to sing harmonies during long car rides to rodeo events. Reba began performing at school at a young age and eventually formed a singing trio with her siblings. They performed at local events, bars, and dance halls around Oklahoma, and even released a small regional single celebrating their grandfather. Reba also played basketball, ran track, learned piano and guitar, and trained as a barrel racer, developing the mix of discipline and showmanship she would later bring to the stage.
After graduating from high school in 1973, she enrolled at Southeastern Oklahoma State University to study elementary education with a minor in music while continuing to help on the family ranch. In 1974, her father encouraged her to sing the national anthem at the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. That performance placed her in front of country artist Red Steagall, who heard something different in her voice. Steagall became convinced Reba had something special.
When her mother asked if he could help all three siblings secure recording contracts, he said he couldn’t take all of them, but he believed he could take Reba because there was something different about her. On the drive to Nashville in 1975, Reba kept finding reasons to stop the trip. Her mother understood her daughter was afraid, and one conversation changed everything. She reminded Reba that she didn’t have to go if she didn’t want to, but admitted she was living her own dreams through her daughter.
Reba decided to keep going. After recording a demonstration tape, she caught the attention of Glenn Keener at Polygram Mercury Records. The label was considering two female performers but could only sign one, and Reba’s tape was the one selected. She signed her first recording contract in late 1975 and began recording professionally the following year.
Her early releases didn’t immediately make her a star. Her first single barely made an impact on the country charts, and the songs that followed performed modestly. But Reba kept touring and learning how to command a stage, eventually building her own touring band that included her sister Susie and brother Pake. The family traveled in a three-car caravan carrying their equipment.
The real breakthrough came when Reba began fighting for control over the kind of music she wanted to make. Her early label had pushed her toward a softer country pop sound, but she wanted something more traditional. After moving to MCA Records, she took a much more active role in choosing her material. By the mid-1980s, she was becoming one of the defining female voices in country music.
Her breakthrough album in 1984 leaned into traditional country sounds and helped establish her as an artist who could make classic country music feel fresh. She earned the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year award, and by 1986, her album topped the country chart, earned platinum status, and brought her a Grammy. Before Narvel, there was another marriage. Reba married Charlie Battles in 1976 when she was still a young singer working to establish herself in Nashville.
Battles was a successful steer wrestling champion and rancher, and the couple built their life around the Oklahoma ranch lifestyle. As Reba’s career gained momentum, their priorities and lifestyles gradually moved in different directions, and the marriage came to an end in 1987 after roughly 11 years together. Just two years later, Narvel entered her life in a way that would become deeply connected to both her heart and her career. The professional partnership that had begun years earlier had grown into something much deeper, and their marriage became intertwined with almost every part of Reba’s professional world.
One of the darkest moments of that world came in March 1991. Reba and her band had recently played dates in Alaska, Michigan, and Indiana before traveling to San Diego for a private performance for IBM. Two planes were arranged to transport members of her touring crew, while Reba, Narvel, and her stylist were scheduled to travel separately the following day. In the early hours of March 16th, the phone rang.
Narvel answered and learned that one of the planes carrying members of Reba’s band had crashed. The aircraft had struck the side of Otay Mountain shortly after takeoff, killing everyone aboard. Among those who died were eight members of Reba’s touring band, including guitarists Chris Austin and Michael Thomas, keyboardists Kirk Cappello and Joey Singeraro, vocalist Paula Kay Evans, road manager Jim Hammon, bassist Terry Jackson, and drummer Anthony Saputo. The two pilots, Donald Holmes and Chris Hollinger, were also killed.
These were people Reba knew, worked with, and cared about deeply. Some had been part of her professional life for years, and the sudden loss felt like losing members of her own extended family. A statement released on her behalf described her as completely devastated and desperate to return to Nashville. Just nine days after the crash, Reba performed at the 63rd Academy Awards, singing a nominated song from Postcards from the Edge.
Behind the scenes, Vince Gill and Dolly Parton offered their help as she began the difficult process of rebuilding her touring band. Later that year, Reba released For My Broken Heart, an album dedicated to the members of her road band who had died. The title track became a number one country hit, as did Is There Life Out There. The album climbed to number three on the country chart and reached number 13 on the Billboard 200, becoming her highest charting album on that chart at the time.
It eventually sold more than 4 million copies in the United States, making it her best-selling album at that point in her career. After her divorce from Narvel, Reba eventually found companionship with Anthony Skeeter Lasuzzo, an American businessman and photographer she reportedly met through mutual friends while vacationing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Their relationship became public as the two shared glimpses of their travels together. Reba confirmed in 2019 that they had broken up earlier that year, explaining that they had decided to go their separate ways but continued talking and remained friends.
Throughout her personal life, Reba seemed determined to handle endings without turning them into public battles. That pattern became most visible after her divorce from Narvel, when the news of his new relationship with Laura Stroud could have sparked a very different response. Instead, Reba’s actions suggested something simpler: the marriage was over, but the history remained, and she wasn’t willing to destroy everything they had built simply because their romantic relationship had ended.
