Trisha Yearwood

Trisha Yearwood was born in Monticello, Georgia, the daughter of Jack Howard Yearwood, a local banker and Gwendolyn (née Paulk), a schoolteacher.

Yearwood took a strong interest in becoming an accountant and her degree from Belmont University was in Business Administration.

While in school at Belmont, Yearwood gained an internship with Mary Tyler Moore's record company, MTM Records. She was eventually hired as a full-time employee following her graduation. "I got a real job, as a receptionist at a record label, and I started figuring out that if I didn't get aggressive about it, I'd get to be the receptionist forever," Yearwood recalled during a Q&A at the Country Music Hall of Fame. "So I started to network a bit, called some writers that I knew."