Merle Haggard Died Today on His 79th Birthday

by Ned LannamannMerle Haggard in 2013.
Well, crap.
From the Bakersfield Californian:Merle Haggard composed the soundtrack of a generation of displaced Okies, Arkies and Texans — the rootlessness, the poverty, the field work — but he did it with such towering artistry that the Oildale native, the son of a railroad man and God-fearing mother, belonged not just to Bakersfield but the world.
The poet of the working man died Wednesday — his 79th birthday — at his home near Red