Thank Heaven for Little Country Girls

In one clip LeAnn--on horseback in cowgirl gear and a big, flat Oklahoma-style straw hat--is singing "The Star Spangled Banner" at a rodeo; LeAnn is noticeably younger, perhaps 10 or 11. Wilbur stands next to her horse, holding the reins and beaming contentedly. Although only a few years have passed since then, Wilbur has aged 10, and it saddens to think of him like one of our presidents, whose pictures can be accurately dated by how worn-out and tired they look. All of a sudden, his frequent admonition--"You can quit anytime, and we'll just go back to how it used to be"--takes on an unexpected poignancy.

"I just had some people go over to see Wilbur and Belinda," Bill Mack says. "They'd just gotten back from one of those extended trips, and they looked like death warmed over. In walks LeAnn from a movie, and she looks like she just got up from a 15-hour nap." Mack chuckles. "This isn't a case of backstage parents," he says. "It's an onstage daughter."

All the great stories involve cost, and LeAnn's may well be one of the classics. The heart's deepest desire granted, then the bill. A child beautiful and talented beyond all expectation and correspondingly taxing, yet who could deny their child?

Wilbur and Belinda are bound to stand by LeAnn; there is no place else they'd rather be.