Martina McBride Shares Devastating Family Update: ‘Our Hearts Are Broken’

Martina McBride struggled to find “the right words” as she shared a devastating family update with her fans on Saturday, Jan. 18.

“My dad passed away Tuesday night,” the country music star announced. “Our hearts are broken.”

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Her father, fellow musician Daryl Schiff, was 86 when he “passed away suddenly and peacefully at his home” earlier this week, McBride, 58, said on Instagram. She shared a photo of her late father, who once led their family band, The Schiffters, that showed him raising a cowboy hat over his head as he stood on a stage.

The “This One’s for the Girls” singer remembered her father as “a third-generation family farmer” who “taught me so much about music, about life, about how to treat others.” She and Schiff “talked on the phone every single night and sometimes during the day” after the death of McBride’s mother five years ago, leaving the 14-time Grammy nominee with memories of more than “1800 conversations that I am so grateful I had.”

“I was able to record some of them, some of his stories, and they are priceless to me,” she shared. “He kept active, still driving and living in his home, and ‘going down for coffee’ with his friends at the local CO-OP.”

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A post shared by Martina McBride (@martinamcbride)

The “Independence Day” songstress listed some of the hobbies she and her father shared before sprinkling in a few of the things that he “loved” to do, such as detailing his grocery store purchases during their phone calls and visiting with friends.

“He loved his family, his friends, and our mom,” she wrote, adding that her father was “such an important member” of their local community, with people still remembering “going to the Schiffters dances and hearing him sing.”

McBride concluded her heartbroken post by acknowledging how much her father helped shape the person she is. “So much of who I am came from him,” she wrote. “There is so much more I could write, and probably will. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers during this time.”

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