Reba McEntire Has More Than 1 Eerie Connection to Patsy Cline

Reba McEntire and Patsy Cline have a connection or two that goes beyond being two of country music’s most iconic artists. McEntire was just a child when Cline died, but she eventually recorded a couple of her songs. And some of the coincidences in their stories are downright eerie.

Read on to learn how Cline’s tragic death provided an undertone to a story of heartbreaking loss for McEntire. Plus, what other country music connections do they share?

Reba McEntire is a longtime fan of Patsy Cline

Tragically, Cline was 30 when she died in a 1963 plane crash that killed three others. So, she didn’t have a chance to record a massive collection of songs. But she made a lasting impact with hits like “Crazy,” and McEntire is one of the artists who continue to honor her talent nearly 60 years after she died.

In the early days of McEntire’s career, she recorded more than one song that the “Walkin’ After Midnight” singer made famous. And she performed Cline’s “Why Can’t He Be You” in her first recorded Grand Ole Opry performance in 1978.

But what stands out is one a cappella performance later in McEntire’s career and the tragedy that occurred after she performed another of Cline’s songs.

Patsy Cline and Reba McEntire have more connections than country music

When Cline died in a plane crash in 1963, she’d survived a near-fatal illness in her youth and an almost-deadly car accident not long before her death. And friends like Loretta Lynn said she made comments that seemed like premonitions of her doom in retrospect. One of those was when she foretold that the recording sessions that produced “Sweet Dreams,” her first posthumous single, would be her last.

That’s where McEntire and Cline have more in common than their careers, with bizarre coincidences in their stories. A 1991 plane crash killed seven members of McEntire’s band, her tour manager, and two pilots. And having such tragedy become part of your history is uncommon enough to note, but things get even eerier in the connections between the country queens.

McEntire worked with those individuals who died in the crash during a show before the plane went down. And she performed Cline’s “Sweet Dreams” as her encore a cappella, as she usually did. That night, as she sang the haunting tune, her band packed up for their doomed takeoff, unaware they would soon meet the same fate as Cline.

In Reba: My Story, McEntire’s autobiography, she shared, “… They went to their rooms to pack up, and because of [a] change in airports, many had time to call home and take showers before heading out.”

So, “Sweet Dreams” was one of the last songs Cline recorded before she died in a plane crash. And it was also the last song McEntire sang before losing her friends the same way. She later said the tragedy would probably never quit hurting.

Reba McEntire and Patsy Cline share another connection through Loretta Lynn

McEntire wasn’t around to meet Cline, but she won the adoration of Loretta Lynn, a close friend of the late legend. McEntire and Lynn joined forces with Carrie Underwood in 2021 for Lynn’s song “Still Woman Enough.”

According to Lynn, Cline taught her how to be a star after she arrived in Nashville in the early ’60s. From how to act and dress to how to shave her legs for the first time and even advice on how to get more of what she wanted in the bedroom, she found a mentor in Cline.

So, friendship with the “Coal Miner’s Daughter” is also on the list of things McEntire and Cline have in common.