American country music performer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler Merle Ronald Haggard passed away on April 6, 2016, at age 81.
Haggard was born in Oildale, California, at the end of the Great Depression. After his father passed away, his boyhood was rocky, and he spent a number of times in jail while he was a youngster. He was able to rebuild his life and begin a prosperous career in country music after leaving San Quentin State Prison in 1960.
What did Merle Haggard’s dad do?
James Francis Haggard and Flossie Mae (née Harp) Haggard were Haggard’s parents (1899–1946). After their barn burnt in 1934, the family left their home in Checotah, Oklahoma, and relocated to California during the Great Depression.
While James began working for the Santa Fe Railroad, they moved into an apartment in Bakersfield with their two older children, Lillian and James “Lowell” (1922-1996).
Haggard’s father was questioned over the prospect of turning a boxcar owned by a woman in the adjacent village of Oildale into a home. Merle Ronald Haggard was born there on April 6, 1937, after the man had renovated the boxcar and moved in. He had also bought the land. In the end, a bathroom, a second bedroom, a kitchen, and a breakfast nook were added to the property in the neighboring lot.
