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            Merle Haggard, American Country Music Legend, Dead at 79

   by Joshua Fatzick

   Merle Haggard, one of the most recognizable voices in American country
   music, died Wednesday -- his 79th birthday -- following a months-long
   bout with double pneumonia.

   Over the course of his career, Haggard released more than 80 albums,
   and 38 of his songs topped U.S. country music charts, including "Hungry
   Eyes," Momma Tried," and "Okie from Muskogee," which became a rallying
   cry of sorts against the hippie subculture during the late 1960s.

   Haggard's music centered primarily around his impoverished life growing
   up on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California. His gruff lyrics
   championing the hard life of blue-collar workers made him a favorite of
   working-class people across the country.

   He was born in 1937, the son of two Okies -- Dust Bowl refugees from
   Oklahoma who moved west to escape the Great Depression and settled in
   Bakersfield. Haggard and his parents lived in an old railroad boxcar
   that his father, James Haggard, a railway worker, converted into their
   home.

   Following his father's death in 1946, Haggard embarked on a life that
   included five marriages and several stints in jail. Convicted of
   burglary, he served more than two years at the maximum-security state
   prison in San Quentin, near San Francisco, where he attended a concert
   for convicts by Johnny Cash, another legend in the world of American
   country music, in 1958.

   Haggard decided to turn his life around and try to build a career in
   music, and he eventually was pardoned by California's governor at the
   time, Ronald Reagan, who went on to become president.

   Haggard released his first independent album in 1963 and signed with
   Capitol Records in 1965, when he released his first number-one single,
   "I'm a Lonesome Figure."

   After that first success, one hit followed another and Haggard's career
   soon attained epic proportions. He was inducted into the Country Music
   Hall of Fame in 1994.

   In 2008, Haggard underwent surgery to remove a tumor in his lung, but
   was back onstage performing within a few weeks. In February of this
   year, Haggard canceled a number of tour dates as he tried to recover
   from pneumonia, and he was unable to resume performing.
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   legend-dead-at-79/3273397.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/merle-haggard-american-country-music-legend-dead-at-79/3273397.html