If you are a fan of country music or online shopping, you might have heard of George Strait and Jeff Bezos. But did you know that these two famous figures are actually related? Yes, you read that right. The King of Country and the founder of Amazon are cousins. Here’s how.
The Family Connection
According to Celeb Answers, Jeff Bezos and George Strait are blood relatives through Bezos’ maternal grandmother, Mattie Louise Gise (née Strait). Mattie was the daughter of Yancey Clarence Strait, who was the brother of John Samuel Strait, George’s grandfather. This makes George and Bezos’ mother, Jacklyn Gise, second cousins, and George and Bezos cousins twice removed.
The Family History
The Strait family has a long history in Texas, where George was born and raised. His great-grandfather, John Joseph Strait, was a rancher and a pioneer who settled in Pearsall, Texas, in the late 1800s. He had six children, including Yancey and John Samuel. Yancey married Mattie Lee Allen and had one daughter, Mattie Louise, who was born in 1912. Mattie Louise married Lawrence Preston Gise, a Chicago native who worked for the Atomic Energy Commission. They had one daughter, Jacklyn, who was born in 1946.
Jacklyn married Ted Jorgensen, a circus performer and unicyclist, when she was 16 years old and pregnant with Jeff. Jeff was born in 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen. However, his biological father abandoned the family when Jeff was a toddler. Jacklyn divorced Ted and remarried Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant who adopted Jeff as his son.
George, on the other hand, was born in 1952 in Poteet, Texas, as George Harvey Strait. He was the son of John Byron Strait Sr., a junior high school teacher who also owned a ranch near Big Wells, Texas. George grew up working on the ranch and developed a love for country music. He joined the Army in 1971 and married his high school sweetheart, Norma Voss. They have one son, George Strait Jr., also known as Bubba.
The Family Legacy
Both George and Bezos have achieved remarkable success in their respective fields. George is one of the most influential and popular country singers of all time, with over 60 number one hits and more than 100 million records sold worldwide. He has won numerous awards, including 22 CMA Awards and 24 ACM Awards. He is also known for his traditional country style and his cowboy image.
Bezos is one of the richest and most powerful people in the world, with a net worth of over $200 billion as of July 2021. He founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore and transformed it into a global e-commerce giant that sells everything from books to groceries to cloud computing services. He also owns The Washington Post, Blue Origin (a space exploration company), and several other businesses.
Despite their family ties, George and Bezos have never publicly acknowledged each other or appeared together. This could be because they are too distantly related to have any meaningful contact or because they have different lifestyles and interests. However, they do share some common traits, such as their entrepreneurial spirit, their passion for innovation, and their Texas roots.
So there you have it: the surprising truth about how George Strait is related to Jeff Bezos. The next time you listen to a George Strait song or order something from Amazon, you might want to remember that these two icons are cousins.
