NEED TO KNOW
Rory Feek is honoring Joey Feek.
On Tuesday, Sept. 9, the country singer shared an emotional Instagram Reel celebrating what would’ve been his late wife’s 50th birthday. The video Rory shared features the couple’s 11-year-old daughter Indiana and his wife, Rebecca, whom he married in July 2024.
“Today would be Joey’s 50th birthday, and as we remember and lift her up on this special day, I feel incredibly grateful for the life with her that I got to be part of,” Rory, 60, began the caption. “For the amazing music, example and especially the love she left behind… inside our little girl Indiana, in me, and in others. Because I knew what love was, I am able to know what love is, and experience the beautiful life and story we are part of now.”
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” ‘Love doesn’t die when our hearts stop beating. It lives on in the ones we poured love into…’ ” Rory continued, adding that the song featured in the post — which featured lyrics like, “Have faith/Love lives on” — was written and sung by Tim Menzies.
In the video, Rory, Indiana and Rebecca visit Joey’s grave to pay tribute and place a flower bouquet. Joey, who made up half of the country and gospel duo Joey + Rory, died in 2016 after being diagnosed with cervical cancer. She was 40.
Heidi Feek/Instagram
When Rory married Rebecca last year, he wrote in a blog post that he was thrilled Indiana would have a “Mama in her life again” after the loss of Joey.
“I think by-far my and her favorite moment of the wedding was this one. When Indiana was given the gift of having a Mama in her life again. And Rebecca was given the gift of being a mother. And we became a family,” he wrote.
Rory’s daughter Heidi Feek — whom he shares with his first wife — also paid tribute to Joey in an Instagram Stories post. The picture features Heidi, 38, her sister Hopie Feek, and Indiana hugging Joey. “She would’ve been 50 today,” Heidi captioned the image from a November 2015 post.
“This breaks my heart. I wish that you guys didn’t have to go through this. I wish the cancer never came back and Joey lived a happy healthy life but God had other plans,” Heidi wrote at the time after Joey’s tumor grew back and she was under hospice care. “Keep strong.”
Heidi and Hopie are currently in the midst of an ongoing dispute with Rory over Indiana’s care. The sisters say they have not been able to see the child for over a year, as Rory has not let her visit them due, he says, to their differing worldviews.
Heidi and Hopie took legal action against their father over the situation with Indiana in 2024, and legal proceedings remain ongoing.
Danielle Del Valle/Getty for Someone Like You Movie
On March 4, Rory honored Joey on the ninth anniversary of her death. “It’s been nine years today that Joey’s been gone,” he wrote on Instagram with a picture of her grave.
“Every March at this exact time the daffodils begin blooming here on the farm – just in time for Indiana to pick and bring to her Mama’s cross, as we think of and remember her…” he wrote.
