Merle Haggard
Country Singer
Country singer of "Okie From Muskogee" who was the leader of the band The Strangers. He was a Country Music Hall of Fame inductee in 1994.
His family moved west because their farm burned down during the Great Depression. As a young man, Haggard got into legal trouble for minor offenses like theft.
He was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and a Kennedy Center Honor in 2010.
He was married five times: first to Leona Hobbs in 1956, then to Bonnie Owens in 1968, then to Leona Williams in 1978, then to Debbie Parret on in 1985, and then to Theresa Ann Lane on September 11, 1993.
Kris Kristofferson once performed for Haggard in Washington D.C.