Reba

Reba Nell McEntire was born on March 28, 1955, in McAlester, Okla. The third of four children, she was raised on the family's 8,000-acre family ranch in Chockie, Okla., and traveled frequently to watch her father compete at rodeos. Her father was the World Champion Steer Roper in 1957, 1958 and 1961, an honor her grandfather, John McEntire, also won in 1934. She would later follow in the family tradition by participating in barrel racing competitions from the time she was 11.

While in high school, she joined older brother Pake (who later had his own country music career) and younger sister Susie (who became a gospel singer) as members of the Kiowa High School Cowboy Band and recorded a single, "The Ballad of John McEntire," in 1971. Soon after, the siblings formed their own group, the Singing McEntires, and performed frequently at rodeos, clubs and dancehalls. After graduating from high school, McEntire attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University and graduated in 1976 with a major in elementary education and a minor in music.

McEntire sang the national anthem at the National Rodeo Finals in Oklahoma City in 1974 and attracted the attention of singer Red Steagall, who was also performing at the event. He invited her to Nashville to record demos for his music publishing company. With those tapes, Steagall secured her deal with Polygram Mercury Records.

Her first single, "I Don't Want to Be a One Night Stand," peaked at No. 88 on Billboard's country chart in 1976. Two subsequent singles, "(There's Nothing Like the Love) Between a Woman and a Man" and "Glad I Waited Just for You" were not particularly successful, either, and her self-titled debut album did not chart at all. Although her next two albums also failed to chart, she began building momentum and scored her first Top 10 hit when "(You Lift Me) Up to Heaven" reached No. 8 in 1980. She followed it with the Top 5 "Today All Over Again."

She finally landed on the country albums chart with her fourth project, Heart to Heart. The next, Unlimited, eventually peaked at No. 22 and featured her No. 3 hit "I'm Not That Lonely Yet," as well as her first two No. 1 hits -- "Can't Even Get the Blues" and "You're the First Time I've Thought About Leaving."

McEntire moved to MCA Records in 1983 and released an album, Just a Little Love, one year later. Wanting more control over her song selection and album production, she was thrilled when label president Jimmy Bowen allowed her to make the album she wanted to make. My Kind of Country featured the No. 1 singles, "How Blue" and "Somebody Should Leave." Her success was rewarded in 1984 when she won the CMA's female vocalist of the year award for the first time. She would go on to win the honor for four consecutive years. In 1986, she was named the CMA's entertainer of the year and also joined the Grand Ole Opry.

Her 1986 album, Whoever's in New England, was her first to be certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies. Both the title cut and "Little Rock" became No. 1 hits. A year later, her Greatest Hits became her first to reach platinum status for shipments of 1 million copies. To date, it's sold more than 4 million copies.

Proving her business acumen, McEntire and her manager, Narvel Blackstock, created Starstruck Entertainment in 1988 to handle her management, booking, publicity and publishing. The company went on to work with other artists as well, including Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton. One year later, she married Blackstock, who had been part of her organization since 1980 when he joined as her band's steel guitarist. In 1990, she gave birth to their son Shelby Steven McEntire Blackstock. She would later share stories from her life and marriage in her 1994 autobiography, Reba: My Story, and her 1999 book, Comfort From a Country Quilt. Years later, the couple would expand her brand and oversee the creation and development of successful clothing, footwear, luggage and home collection lines that are sold nationwide in Dillard's.

After getting a taste of acting from her music videos, McEntire began exploring her options in Hollywood. She first appeared alongside Kevin Bacon and Michael Gross in the 1990 comic, horror film, Tremors. Over the years, she would continue with roles in movies such as North, The Little Rascals and One Night at McCool's (2001). She also appeared in a string of television movies, including The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw with Kenny Rogers and The Man From Left Field with Burt Reynolds. Two other films -- Is There Life Out There? and Forever Love -- were inspired by her hit . In addition to on-screen roles in Buffalo Girls and Secret of Giving, her voice was heard as characters in the animated TV series, Hercules, and animated films, Charlotte's Web and The Fox and the Hound 2.

In 2001, she triumphed when she took over the role of Annie Oakley in the Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun. She then moved to Los Angeles to begin her TV sitcom, Reba, that remained in production for six seasons and is still widely aired on cable networks.

McEntire has sold more than 55 million albums worldwide and has achieved 35 No. 1 and 59 Top 10 singles. She has received six CMA Awards, 15 American Music Awards, two Grammys and nine People's Choice Awards. She is the most-nominated female artist in CMA Awards.

Jean Shepard

Jean Shepard was born Ollie Imogene ("Jean") Shepard on Nov. 21, 1933, in Paul's Valley, Okla. The family, which included 10 children, later moved to Visalia, Calif., near Bakersfield, after World War II. As a young girl, Shepard listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio every week and saved her pennies to buy a Jimmie Rodgers record every year.

Shepard sang lead vocals and played bass guitar in the Melody Ranch Girls, an all-female band that she helped create as a teenager in 1948. At one of their shows, future Country Music Hall of Fame member Hank Thompson was impressed with Shepard's talent and got her a recording contract with his producer, Ken Nelson, at Capitol Records in 1952.

Her first single, "Crying Steel Guitar Waltz," did not chart, but Capitol remained supportive. In 1953, the label teamed her with another newcomer, Ferlin Husky, for "A Dear John Letter," a half-spoken/half-sung duet about a soldier in the Korean War. The song topped Billboard's country songs chart for six weeks in 1953, reached No. 4 on the pop chart and became the first post-World War II single by a female country artist to sell more than 1 million copies. Shepard and Husky quickly followed up with "Forgive Me John," which became a Top 10 country single.

Shepard continued to have hits with songs such as "Twice the Lovin' in Half the Time," "Don't Fall in Love With a Married Man," "The Root of All Evil (Is a Man)," and "The Other Woman," all songs that presented a strong, empowered female point of view which later influenced Loretta Lynn and other artists.

With ongoing success on the country chart, she joined the cast of ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Mo., and worked alongside a cast of talented artists which included the Browns, Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee, and Porter Wagoner, among others. After leaving the show, she moved to Nashville to be closer to the Grand Ole Opry, which she joined in 1955.

In 1956, she released her first album, Songs of a Love Affair, considered by many music historians as country music's first concept album. All 12 songs, which Shepard had a hand in writing, told the story of a marriage ripped apart by an affair. Continuing to follow her own path, she was the rare female country artist that toured on her own instead of being either part of a duo or the "girl singer" in a band. Her independent spirit broke down doors for hundreds of female country artists who would follow.

She married fellow Opry member Hawkshaw Hawkins in 1960 and juggled her career with being a housewife and mother to their first son, Don. Tragically, Hawkins was killed in 1963 in the crash of a private plane that also claimed the lives of Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas in a plane crash. Shepard was pregnant with their second son, Harold Franklin II, at the time.

In 1964, Shepard returned to the Top 10 with her hit "Second Fiddle (To an Old Guitar)." Between 1965 and 1970, she had a string of Top 40 hits that include Someone's Gotta Cry," "A Tear Dropped By," "Many Happy Hangovers to You," "If Teardrops Were Silver," "Heart We Did All We Could," "Your Forevers Don't Last Very Long" and "Another Lonely Night."

She moved to United Artists Records in the early 1970s and enjoyed another Top 10 hit with "Slippin' Away," written by Bill Anderson. She continued to have chart success and performed on the road while making regular appearances on the Opry. In the late 1970s, she recorded for GRT Records and signed with Laserlight Records in the early 1980s.

Shepard was honored in 2005 during her 50th anniversary on the Opry.

Bobby Braddock

Often referred to as one of the greatest songwriters in the history of Nashville's music industry, Robert Valentine Braddock was born in Lakeland, Fla., on Aug. 5, 1940. A fifth-generation Floridian, he was the son of successful citrus grower Paul E. and Lavonia Valentine Braddock, and grew up in Auburndale, Fla. At age 8, he wrote his first song and performed it at a piano recital. He later played saxophone in the high school band.

Braddock played piano in several rock 'n' roll bands and toured Florida during the late 1950s and early 1960s while also continuing to write songs. After having his songs recorded by artists on a local record label, he moved to Nashville in 1964 and soon became the piano player for Marty Robbins and also did session work. In 1966, he became a staff songwriter with Tree International (now Sony/ATV Music Publishing) and signed a recording contract with MGM Records, the first of five major labels he would record for during his career. As an artist he released three albums -- Between the Lines (Elektra, 1979), Love Bomb (RCA, 1980) and Hardpore Cornography (RCA, 1983).

However, Braddock achieved his greatest success as a songwriter after the Statler Brothers achieved two Top 10 hits in 1967 with "You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too" and "Ruthless." As a writer or co-writer, his credits include classics such as George Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," Tammy Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," Jones and Wynette's "Golden Ring" and "(We're Not) The Jet Set," Tanya Tucker's "I Believe the South Is Gonna Rise Again," Johnny Duncan and Janie Fricke's "Thinking of a Rendezvous," John Anderson's "Would You Catch a Falling Star," Mark Chesnutt's "Old Flames Have New Names," Tracy Lawrence's "Texas Tornado" and "Time Marches On," Toby Keith's "I Wanna Talk About Me" and Billy Currington's "People Are Crazy."

Braddock produced or co-produced Blake Shelton's first five albums. In 2007, he released his autobiographical book, Down on Orburndale: A Songwriter's Youth in Old Florida. He's currently working on a second memoir, Hollywood, Tennessee (A Life on Nashville's Music Row).