Ree Drummond turns 57 on January 6. The author and Food Network star who is better known as the Pioneer Woman celebrated her birthday by sharing throwback photos to her 4.4 million Instagram followers.
The home cook captioned her birthday post: "Grainy snapshots of some ages and stages, along with the first song that popped in my head." Ree joked that a certain photo from her past, in which she wore a yellow and black striped rugby shirt, was her "Pete's Dragon phase."
She was only eight years old when the film about a magical dragon was released, so it must have really left a mark. These days, Ree is busy with her Food Network, parenting her five children as they navigate adulthood, and spending time with her granddaughter.
Join HELLO! in celebrating Ree on her 57th birthday as we take a look at her life through the years.
© InstagramRee grew up in Oklahoma
The future television star was born Anne Marie "Ree" Smith in 1969 in the oil town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She grew up there with her two brothers and sister. Ree's parents divorced while she was growing up, with her mother, Gerre, going on to marry the family pastor, Doug Schwert.
© InstagramShe left Oklahoma for college
After graduating from her town's public high school, Ree left Oklahoma to attend the University of Southern California. She studied journalism before switching to gerontology – the study of the biological, cognitive, cultural, psychological, and social aspects of aging.
Ree graduated in 1991, hoping to attend law school in Chicago. But her plans changed when he met her future husband.
© GettyRee met her husband, Ladd Drummond, at a dive bar
After moving back home from Los Angeles, Ree searched through "listings of Chicago apartments," before heading out to a dive bar to meet friends. A casual meeting changed her life forever.
"That's when I saw him—the cowboy—across the room. He was tall, strong and mysterious, sipping bottled beer and wearing jeans and cowboy boots," Ree wrote in an issue of The Pioneer Woman Magazine.
The cowboy was her future husband, Ladd Drummond. The two talked all night, but for the months following their chance encounter, the cowboy didn't reach out to Ree. Four months later, Ladd finally called Ree and the rest was history.
The couple married on September 21, 1996 and settled on Ladd's cattle ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.
© Astrid StawiarzRee as The Pioneer Woman
In 2006, Ree launched The Pioneer Woman – her blog where she discusses ranch life, homeschooling, and her favorite recipes. The blog's popularity rose rapidly, garnering 23.3 million views per month in 2011.
That same year, the Food Network announced that Ree would host her own daytime television series. The Pioneer Woman premiered on August 27, 2011. Ree's show and life in general draws many fans. She has 4.4 million followers on Instagram and has significantly boosted tourism to her little town of Pawhuska.
© InstagramRee and Ladd's family
The couple have five children – Alex, 28, Paige, 26, Bryce, 23, Jamar, 23, and Todd, 21. Ree and Ladd are foster parents to Jamar, who they welcomed to their family in 2018.
"Fostering a kid was never something Ladd and I pursued or felt called to do, but Jamar's circumstances presented themselves to us in a way we couldn't ignore," she wrote in her book Frontier Follies. "Long story short, all six foot five inches of him showed up at our house one afternoon, bag in hand, ready to move in."
Ree has one granddaughter, Sofia Maria Scott, who was born to her eldest daughter, Alex in 2024.
