Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story

Growing up in Texas—and later California—in the 1950s, Barbara Mandrell’s musical talent and love for performing are evident from an early age. While helping her father Irby, Dwight Schultz at a music store, a young Mandrell’s impromptu steel guitar performance catches the eye of country guitarist Joe Maphis John Doe, who invites her to perform in his Las Vegas and Los Angeles shows. Her mother Mary Mandrell, Lisa Blount, provides quiet support as the family grapples with the demanding schedule, and Mandrell’s early forays into show business are tempered by the challenges of constant travel.

As a teenager, Mandrell continues performing locally with her family’s band. Mandrell and the band’s drummer Ken Dudney, Greg Kean, fall in love, but Irby Dwight Schultz disapproves because of their age difference. Ken leaves to enlist as a pilot in the United States Navy, and after a period of longing, Irby eventually accepts their relationship and the two marry in 1967.

With the move to a Navy base on Whidbey Island, Washington, Mandrell hopes to settle down and step away from performing. A visit to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville rekindles her love for singing, and she decides to pursue her dream again, with some family and fan encouragement along the way. Seeing potential, a record executive signs her to a major label, and the couple welcomes their first child, Matthew Jesse Littlejohn, while Dudney leaves the Navy to support Mandrell. They later add a second child, Jaime Evan Rachel Wood, to the growing family, and Mandrell begins touring the country with a string of hits in the 1970s.

Mandrell’s rising star continues as she becomes one of the biggest names in country music, capped by winning the 1980 CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year. That same year, the family relocates to California where she lands her own network television show, despite some pushback from executives. The grueling pace of fame tests her balance between career and family, and her health suffers as she overworks herself. Her husband and loved ones rally around her as press scrutiny intensifies, and a tense moment comes to a head when an accident in 1984 leaves Mandrell with head trauma, memory loss, and mood swings. Depressed and reclusive, she pushes loved ones away, but an intervention led by Dudney helps her confront the pain and begin healing.

With renewed determination, she returns to recording and touring, and the film culminates with a triumphant comeback performance in Los Angeles in 1986, signaling a new chapter for a country icon who weathered tragedy, fatigue, and the limits of stardom to reclaim her place in the spotlight.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:06