Country Music Icon Merle Haggard Has Died at 79, Rest in Peace

Country music icon Merle Haggard has died …

It is with incredible sadness to announce that country music icon Merle Haggard has passed away at the age of 79. Wow, this one hits close to home. I grew up on listening to the likes of Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams, Sr. as my parents played the 8-track tapes over and over. Yes Millennials, 8-track tapes, Google it. There were just so many songs to like from country great Merle Haggard, The Tennessean has provided 15 songs that defined a legendary career. Rest in Peace Merle.

Okie From Muskogee

Merle Haggard, one of the most successful singers in the history of country music, a contrarian populist whose songs about his scuffling early life and his time in prison made him the closest thing that the genre had to a real-life outlaw hero, died at his ranch in Northern California on Wednesday, his 79th birthday.

His death was confirmed by his agent, Lance Roberts. Mr. Haggard had recently canceled several concerts, saying he had double pneumonia.

Few country artists have been as popular and widely admired as Mr. Haggard, a ruggedly handsome performer who strode onto a stage, guitar in hand, as a poet of the common man. Thirty-eight of his singles, including “Workin’ Man Blues” and the 1973 recession-era lament “If We Make It Through December,” reached No. 1 on the Billboard country chart from 1966 to 1987. He released 71 Top 10 country hits in all, 34 in a row from 1967 to 1977. Seven of his singles crossed over to the pop charts.

Mama Tried

More from The NY Times:

Merle Ronald Haggard was born on April 6, 1937, in Oildale, Calif. His first years were spent in the abandoned boxcar that his father, James, a railroad carpenter, had converted into a home for his family. James Haggard died of a stroke in 1946, after which Mr. Haggard’s mother, the former Flossie Mae Harp, a strict and pious member of the ultraconservative Church of Christ, took a bookkeeping job to provide for her three children.

Sing Me Back Home

From Billboard Magazine – Merle Haggard on Death: ‘Sometimes I Fear It and Other Times It Calls to Me Like a Forgotten Dream’ (Exclusive):

Merle wanted to be seen the way he was.

“Wrote a tune not long called ‘I Am What I Am,’” he said, “that sums me up pretty damn good. Song says, “I believe Jesus is God and a pig is just ham…I’m a seeker, I’m a sinner, and I am what I am.”

Seated in an easy chair in the living room of his modest home, he discussed a recent operation that removed a cancer from his lung, the cancer that ultimately returned and took his life on April 6 at age 79.

“All this near-death stuff has me thinking that it’s time to reconcile all the many Merles. There’s Merle the daddy’s boy, the son of a railroad man. Then there’s the juvenile delinquent Merle who tore up more than one reform school, the Merle who spent a decade of hard time in prison, the Merle who had the guts to stand up in those Bakersfield barrooms imitating his idol Lefty Frizzell, the Merle who finally found his own voice and muddled his way through show business. And most devilishly complicated of all, the Merle of four marriages.”

Darkness fell. Merle grew quiet. He slipped in a DVD of his favorite preacher, Dr. Gene Scott, who spoke of eternal life. When the sermon ended, I asked Merle whether he feared death.

“Sometimes I fear it,” he said, “and other times it calls to me like a forgotten dream or an old song. I’m not saying I welcome it, but I recognize it as part of a holy process. Born of nature, return to nature. Maybe that’s the name of my last song.

Four Americans Confirmed Killed in Brussels Terrorist Attacks (Justin & Stephanie Shults, Alexander Pinczowski and his Sister, Sascha)

AFTER AMERICANS DIED AND WERE HEINOUSLY KILLED IN A TERROR BOMB ATTACK IN BRUSSELS, BARACK OBAMA ENJOYED HIM SELF AT A BASEBALL GAME IN CUBA AND DANCING IN ARGENTINA.

Sadly, two more Americans have been confirmed to have been killed in the Brussels bombing terror attack in Brussels, Belgium. The two have been identified as a married couple, Justin and Stephanie Shults. They were killed in the bombings at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport. Earlier Sunday, the White House said that President Barack Obama telephoned the parents of an American couple identified as among the dead in last week’s attacks. What, Obama didn’t have a more pressing golf game to attend? Justin Shults was originally from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and his wife, Stephanie, was a native of Lexington, Kentucky. They graduated together from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Previously, Alexander Pinczowski and his sister, Sascha, were killed at Brussels airport.

Four Americans are confirmed to have been killed in last week’s terror attacks in Brussels, the State Department said late Sunday.

A State Department official confirmed the deaths of two additional U.S. citizens in a brief statement, but declined to identify them. The statement expressed “our deepest condolences” to those who had lost loved ones. The department initially said Friday that two Americans had died in the attacks.

Over the weekend, married couple Justin and Stephanie Shults were confirmed to have been killed in the bombings at Brussels’ Zaventem Airport. A family member told the Associated Press they were dropping Stephanie’s mother off at the airport and were watching her walk through security when the bombs went off.

President Barack Obama telephoned the couple’s parents earlier Sunday. The White House said Obama offered his condolences and praised Justin and Stephanie Shults as epitomizing all that was good about America.

On Friday, U.S. officials told Fox News that the wife of an Air Force lieutenant colonel had been killed in the airport attack. The unidentified serviceman and four other members of his family were injured in the blast.

Really, so now Obama decides to act like a president and offer his condolences? Sorry, but Obama should never and I repeat never have attended a baseball game in Cuba and then danced the night away in Argentina as the ISIS terror attacks ripped through Brussels and murdered Americans. But what would you expect from a president who cares more about himself than We the People. But of course ISIS doesn’t pose a threat. Who is the real JV?

Easter Suicide Bomb Targeting Christians that Killed at least 70 People

At least 72 people were killed and more than 320 others injured when a suicide bomber, who was targeting Christians, blew himself up at a busy park in Lahore on Sunday in Pakistan.

Reuters:

Pakistani authorities on Monday hunted members of a Taliban faction which once declared loyalty to Islamic State after the group claimed responsibility for an Easter suicide bomb targeting Christians that killed at least 70 people.

The brutality of Sunday’s attack by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, the group’s fifth bombing since December, reflects the movement’s attempts to raise its profile among Pakistan’s increasingly fractured Islamist militants.

At least 29 children enjoying an Easter weekend outing were among those killed when the suicide bomber struck in a busy park in the eastern city of Lahore, the power base of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Pakistan is a majority-Muslim state but has a Christian population of more than two million.

It was Pakistan’s deadliest attack since the December 2014 massacre of 134 school children at a military-run academy in the city of Peshawar that prompted a big government crackdown on Islamist militancy.

5 People are Dead in Wilkinsburg, PA Mass Shooting … Gunmen(s) Still on the Loose

5 PEOPLE KILLED IN MASS SHOOTING …

Five people are dead and several injured after a mass shooting Wednesday night in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, just east of Pittsburgh.  The incident occurred during a backyard party/cookout at 1304 Franklin Avenue. Four people, three women and a man, were found shot on a back porch and were pronounced dead at the scene, and a woman was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Police stated that party-goers appeared to attempt to run into the home when the sots were fired, at which point a person on the side or backyard adjacent to the house fired at the back porch.  Some witnesses said that they heard up to 20 shots fired or more.  There are presumed to have been two gunman. They are still on the loose.

Five people are dead and three people are hurt after a mass shooting in Wilkinsburg Wednesday night, Allegheny County Police said.

Emergency dispatchers confirmed that police and seven ambulances were called to Franklin Avenue just before 11 p.m.

Authorities said four women and one man were killed. Three of the women and the man were pronounced dead at the scene. The fourth woman was pronounced dead at UPMC Mercy hospital.

Three others were taken from the scene in ambulances. Of those victims, two men were listed in critical condition and a woman was listed in stable condition, police said.

A man who identified himself as the father of one of the victims told Channel 11 News his daughter, 38-year-old Tona Shelton, died at the scene.

Anyone who saw or heard anything is asked to contact the Allegheny County Police Homicide Unit at (412) 473-1300. Callers can remain anonymous.

Nancy Reagan, Former First Lady Has Passed Away at 94 … Nancy & Ronald Reagan Toegther Again for Eternity

NANCY REAGAN REUNITED WITH THE LOVE OF HER LIFE … NANCY REAGAN HAS PASSED AWAY.

Nancy Reagan, the former first lady and the wife of the late President Ronald Reagan, died Sunday at the age of 94 at her home in Los Angeles. According to her spokeswoman, Joanne Drake of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Nancy Reagan died at her home of congestive heart failure. Nancy Reagan will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next to her husband, Ronald Wilson Reagan, who died on June 5, 2004. So many of us know her for her “Just Say No” anti-drugs policy in the 1980′s and her undying support and love for President Ronald Reagan. Nancy will now be reunited for eternity with the love of her life, together again, forever. God Bless and Rest in Peace.

Nancy Davis Reagan, wife of the late President Ronald Reagan, died Sunday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 94.

The former first lady will perhaps be best remembered for her loyalty to her husband. She became fiercely protective of him after a 1981 assassination attempt, and later stood by him as Alzheimer’s disease overtook him in his last years.

In a 1998 Vanity Fair article, she vocalized this loyalty: “When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it’s true. It did,” she said.

During her White House years, she sponsored a major drug prevention crusade aimed at children and young adults. She toured the U.S. and other nations as part of her “Just Say No” campaign, traveling almost 250,000 miles.

Republican leaders also paid tribute Sunday to Nancy Reagan.

“With the passing of Nancy Reagan, we say a final goodbye to the days of Ronald Reagan,” wrote 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Facebook. “With charm, grace, and a passion for America, this couple reminded us of the greatness and the endurance of the American experiment. … God and Ronnie have finally welcomed a choice soul home.”

Former first lady Barbara Bush, whose husband George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan as president, also expressed her condolences.

“Nancy Reagan was totally devoted to President Reagan, and we take comfort that they will be reunited once more. George and I send our prayers and condolences to her family,” she said in a statement.

Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, also were moved by Reagan’s death.

“Mrs. Reagan was fiercely loyal to her beloved husband, and that devotion was matched only by her devotion to our country,” Bush said in a statement.

He observed that her influence on the White House was “complete and lasting.”

NY Times Obit:

Born Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921, in New York City, Nancy Davis was the daughter of Edith Luckett, an actress, and Kenneth Robbins, a car dealer who abandoned the family soon after her birth. Miss Luckett resumed her stage career when her daughter was 2 and sent the child to live with relatives in Bethesda, Md. In 1929, Mrs. Luckett married a Chicago neurosurgeon, Loyal Davis, who adopted Nancy and gave her the family name.

Almost overnight, Nancy Davis’s difficult childhood became stable and privileged. Throughout the rest of her life, she described Dr. Davis as her real father.

Nancy Davis graduated from the elite Girls’ Latin School in Chicago and then from Smith College in 1943. Slender, with photogenic beauty and large, luminous eyes, she considered an acting career. After doing summer stock in New England, she landed a part in the Broadway musical “Lute Song,” with Mary Martin and Yul Brynner. With the help of a friend, the actor Spencer Tracy, her mother then arranged a screen test given by the director George Cukor, of MGM.

Talk about undying love and to death do us part … Nancy Reagan’s toughest battle: The ‘long, long goodbye’ to the man she loved.