Country Icon Merle Haggard Dead at 79

Merle Haggard, who overcame a youth of deprivation and imprisonment to become one of the enduring figures in hardcore country music, died Wednesday morning (April 6) in California at age 79. Associated Press reports his manager confirmed Haggard died of pneumonia.
The singer underwent surgery for lung cancer in 2008, and had been hospitalized for various ailments over the past few years — most notably for pneumonia, which forced several concert postponements and cancelations in 2015 and 2016.

Haggard was born April 6, 1937 in Oildale, Calif., outside Bakersfield; his family had emigrated three years earlier from the Oklahoma dust bowl. The Haggards lived in a converted boxcar, and Merle’s father died when he was 9.

As a teen, Haggard became a delinquent and petty criminal. He hadn’t turned 20 when he was sentenced to a three-year stretch in San Quentin on a burglary conviction. While in prison, he witnessed a performance by Johnny Cash, an event he later characterized as life-changing.

Source: Billboard
Source: Creative Commons