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All About Toby Keith's Children, Wife, and Family
The late Toby Keith was both a country icon and family man.
When country singer Toby Keith passed away from stomach cancer on February 5, 2024, he did so peacefully and surrounded by family, according to the announcement posted to his website.
Below, get to know all about Keith's beautiful family, including the loving wife and fellow musician he left behind.
About Toby Keith's wife, Tricia Lucus
After graduating from Moore High School in Oklahoma in 1979, Keith worked in an oil field by day and played music at local bars by night, according to TODAY. In 1980, Tricia Lucus, then working as a secretary, saw one of those bar shows. “I was 19 and he was 20,” she recalled. “He was just one of those larger-than-life guys, full of confidence."
Four years later, the pair got married and were together until the singer's death.
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Toby Keith's children and grandchildren
Lucus was already a mom to one baby daughter, Shelley, when she met Keith, whose legal last name was Covel (Keith was his middle name). He legally adopted Shelley Covel Rowland after the pair got married, per TODAY. In 1985, they welcomed. another daughter, Krystal. The couple's son, Stelen Keith Covel, arrived in 1997.
Krystal Keith is a mom herself, welcoming two daughters with her husband. In an interview, per Taste of Country, Keith expressed his admiration for his daughter's parenting skills. "She’s raising beautiful babies. She’s a mother. She loves being a mother. She’s so busy with those kids. They are constantly doing something," he said. "When they sleep, they sleep on top of her. It’s like puppies running around a dog. They just worship her. And they’re so busy together, she keeps them so busy."
Krystal Keith is a country artist, too
Though she's primarily busy with her kids, Krystal Keith has performed and put out a number of country songs. She even surprised her dad with an original song at her own wedding. When it came time for the father-daughter dance, she introduced "Daddy, Dance With Me," which Keith said brought him to tears.
“I could hear it playing and I knew where it was going and I just kept talking to her,” he told The Oklahoman of their moment on the dance floor. “I looked around the room and every single person...was bawling — men, women alike, everybody. And everybody was looking at me and I was just fighting it back and swallowing hard. Then, I got back [to the hotel] in the dark and then some of them rolled down my face. I was like, ‘Damn, girl, you're crushing me here.'”
Toby Keith: American Icon will air on NBC on Wednesday, August 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The special will honor the country superstar's legacy with performances from his peers.
