Background

Martha Elenor Erwin was born on October 12, 1969 in York Pennsylvania. She was born to Paul Erwin and Barbara Trask. Her parents were both private school instructors. Along with her younger sister and bandmate Emily Strayer, Martie also has one older sister, Julia Erwin- Weiner. Martie spent most of her childhood in Addison, Texas.

Maquire's parents both saw her and sister Emily's love for music and always encouraged them to pursue the craft. They enrolled Martie in classical violin lessons beginning at age 5. When she was 12 years old, she started becoming interested in other stringed instruments including the mandolin, violin, and acoustic guitar. Both sisters continued throughout their teens to practice their vocal and instrumental skills.

In 1984, the two Erwin sisters, along with a couple of classmates began performing on the streets and many small music festivals. This foursome was called the Blue Night Express and enjoyed performing bluegrass music. "That's how we made money in high school", Erwin said in a 60 minutes interview. During this time, she also participated in the ‘National Fiddle Championship’ in Kansas and placed second in 1987. Maquire graduated high school in 1988, deciding to attend Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She was also an active member of the school orchestra. During her college education, she again took part in national level fiddle competition in 1988, this time placing third. Her college life only lasted one year.

Relationships

Martie's first marriage was to a pharmaceutical representative named Ted Siedel. They didn’t have any children of their own. However, Ted had a son named Carter from his previous marriage and Martie became a loving step mother to him. The relationship lasted for only 4 years, starting from June 1995 and ended in divorce in November 1999. Reports stated the couple’s busy schedules kept them apart for long periods of time.

Martie then met Gareth Maguire, a Roman Catholic preacher and an Irish actor in the year 2000. Both of them had arrived in Austin Texas to attend the marriage of Martie’s bandmate Natalie Maine’s sister’s wedding. After a romance of nearly a year, they decided to finally tie the knot in August 2001, in Kailua, Hawaii. They were so eager to marry that they rushed and couldn't have a traditional full wedding plan. In front of a very limited number of guests, the ceremony took place but later on, they set up a Catholic blessing ceremony at Carnlough, Ireland.

With her husband, Martie has 3 daughters. They have the fraternal twins Eva Ruth and Kathleen Emilie Maguire and another daughter named Harper Rosie Maguire. All three daughters were conceived by In Vitro Fertilization. She and her sister Emily have been very open about infertility and the decision to use IVF even mentioning it in a few songs. She gave birth to the twins when she was 34 and to the third daughter in June 2008, when she was 38.

Despite Gareth being professionally on a lower profile than Martie, the couple seemed to enjoy their happy times together with their daughters. They decided to sell their dream house at Austin, TX to buy a smaller house closer to a school. The couple got divorced in 2013 but still take an active role in raising their children together.