“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.”

Introduction

Country Queen Reba McEntire made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry on Sept. 17, 1977. At just 22 years old, Reba fulfilled her lifelong dream of performing on the iconic stage she held since her first visit to the Opry when she was was only seven.

McEntire performed a moving cover of Roger Miller’s “Invitation to the Blues” which was featured on her self-titled debut album.

WATCH THE PERFORMANCE BELOW 👇

Her family traveled hundreds of miles from Oklahoma to the iconic Nashville stage to witness her performance, not yet knowing just how big of a star she would end up becoming. However, her family may have just gotten a clue to how big of a star Reba was transforming into when none other than Dolly Parton showed up.

“Dolly came walking in, and she was like a vision,” McEntire tells Nashville’s Tennessean. “It was worth the drive from Oklahoma just to see Dolly.”

McEntire became an official member of the Grand Ole Opry nine years later in 1986 in a special televised event in honor of the Opry 60th anniversary and performs at the famed stage any chance her strenuous schedule allows.

“The Grand Ole Opry is home,” she says. “It’s a family. It’s like a family reunion, when you come back and get to see everybody.”

McEntire was set to perform a second song of Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams” but was unable to due to Parton’s surprise performance and finally lived out her dream of performing the iconic song at the 1987 CMA Awards ten years later.

Watch Reba’s pitch perfect a cappella rendition of Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams” in the video below!

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THE SONG HE WROTE FOR THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED HIM WHEN HE HAD NOTHING — AND WAS STILL WAITING AT HOME 22 YEARS LATER WHILE HE COLLECTED THE GRAMMY THAT BORE HER NAME In 1948, this artist was a skinny ex-Navy kid in Glendale, Arizona, with no record deal and nothing to offer. Marizona Baldwin was a young woman who had told friends she wanted to marry a singing cowboy — half-joking, half-hoping. He walked into her life, and before that year ended, they were married. No fame, no money. Just a guitar and a promise. She raised their two children through the lean years. She moved with him to Nashville in 1953 when he chased the Grand Ole Opry. She held the house together through the rise, the road, the heart attack in 1969 — and somewhere in the middle of all that, he sat down and wrote her a song. It was not clever. It was not dressed up. It was a plain man saying everything a husband would want to say to a wife — including a verse asking God to give her his share of heaven, because he believed she had earned it more than he ever could. In a 1978 interview, he said simply: “I wrote it for my wife, Marizona. My wife is everything I said in that song. It’s a true song.” The track hit number one on the Billboard country chart, crossed into the pop top 50, and won him the 1970 Grammy for Best Country Song. Just four days after its release, he became one of the first patients in America to undergo open-heart surgery. Every time he sang it on stage, he wasn’t reaching for a character. He was singing the only true love letter he ever wrote, to the woman who had bet on him before anyone else did.

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THE SONG HE WROTE FOR THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED HIM WHEN HE HAD NOTHING — AND WAS STILL WAITING AT HOME 22 YEARS LATER WHILE HE COLLECTED THE GRAMMY THAT BORE HER NAME In 1948, this artist was a skinny ex-Navy kid in Glendale, Arizona, with no record deal and nothing to offer. Marizona Baldwin was a young woman who had told friends she wanted to marry a singing cowboy — half-joking, half-hoping. He walked into her life, and before that year ended, they were married. No fame, no money. Just a guitar and a promise. She raised their two children through the lean years. She moved with him to Nashville in 1953 when he chased the Grand Ole Opry. She held the house together through the rise, the road, the heart attack in 1969 — and somewhere in the middle of all that, he sat down and wrote her a song. It was not clever. It was not dressed up. It was a plain man saying everything a husband would want to say to a wife — including a verse asking God to give her his share of heaven, because he believed she had earned it more than he ever could. In a 1978 interview, he said simply: “I wrote it for my wife, Marizona. My wife is everything I said in that song. It’s a true song.” The track hit number one on the Billboard country chart, crossed into the pop top 50, and won him the 1970 Grammy for Best Country Song. Just four days after its release, he became one of the first patients in America to undergo open-heart surgery. Every time he sang it on stage, he wasn’t reaching for a character. He was singing the only true love letter he ever wrote, to the woman who had bet on him before anyone else did.