California: Country
music legend Merle Haggard died on his 79th birthday on Wednesday morning after
a battle with pneumonia at his home in Palo Cedro, California.
Haggard spent 11 days
at Eisenhower Medical Center in Riverside, California, earlier this year, and
last week he canceled his April shows in an effort to fully recover pneumonia.
Born to Oklahoma
migrants James and Flossie Haggard on April 6, 1937 in Bakersfield, Californi,
Merle Ronald Haggard was the youngest of three children. The Haggard family
lived in a converted railroad car in Oildale, California.
The 79-year-old
American singer-songwriter was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in
1994. He is perhaps best known for Okie
From Muskogee, his hit in 1969.
Over the length of his
half-century career, Mr. Haggard recorded 38 No. 1 country singles including Hungry Eyes, Daddy Frank, Someday When
Things Are Good, I’m A Lonesome Fugitive, Carolyn, Let’s Chase Each Other
Around The Room, Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Star, among others.
He also wrote some of
the genre’s most revered classics, which have been recorded by Dolly Parton,
Emmylou Harris, The Byrds, Vince Gill, The Grateful Dead and countless
others.
He released 47 studio
albums, 23 compilation albums, eight live albums and 82 singles.
He has married five
times and is survived by seven children.
During his lifetime, he
won several accolades, including 19 Academy of Country Music Awards, six
Country Music Association Awards, three Grammy Awards, among others.
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