Country music legend Merle Haggard died at his ranch near Northern California's Lake Shasta on April 6, his 79th birthday. Haggard had the hard-living authenticity that helped make him an icon for the working folks of rural America. Of Okie stock, he grew up in Bakersfield and came up as a musician in the Central Valley town's local honkytonk scene—before actually turning 21 in San Quentin State Prison after a burglary conviction in 1957, as immortalized in his famous hit "Mama Tried." Unlike what the lyric said, however, he wasn't "doing life without parole." He was paroled in 1960, returned to his music career, acheived success, and was granted a pardon in 1972 by California's then-governor (and fellow conservative icon) Ronald Reagan.
Recent comments
2 days 1 hour ago
4 days 2 hours ago
5 weeks 1 hour ago
6 weeks 10 hours ago
6 weeks 21 hours ago
7 weeks 3 days ago
12 weeks 4 days ago
15 weeks 3 hours ago
20 weeks 22 hours ago
32 weeks 11 hours ago