ROSS SIMPSON

Merle Haggard received many honors and awards for
his music, including a Kennedy Center Honor (2010);
a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2006); a BMI
Icon Award (2006) and induction into the Nashville
Songwriters Hall of Fame (1977), Country Music Hall
of Fame (1994) and Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame
(1997). He died on April 6, 2016—his 79th birthday—
at his ranch in Shasta County, California, having
recently suffered from double pneumonia.

Singer, songwriter, musician, and actor.Waylon Jennings is
considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in
country music.

Jennings started playing guitar at age eight and performed
at fourteen on KVOW radio, after which he formed his first
band, the Texas Longhorns. Jennings left high school at age
sixteen, determined to become a musician, and worked as a
performer and DJ on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI, KLLL, in Coolidge,
Arizona, and Phoenix. In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings’
first recording session, a cover of Jole Blon, and hired him to
play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in
1959 that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. "the Big Bopper"
Richardson and Ritchie Valens.

Jennings died in his sleep from complications of diabetes at
his home in Chandler, Arizona, aged 64.

Waylon Jennings ,left, on bass guitar and Buddy Holly.

Toby Keith Covel (July 8, 1961 – February 5, 2024)

In June 2022, Keith announced that he had been diagnosed with
stomach cancer at the end of the prior year, having undergone chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery for the past six months.

Keith said that his battle with cancer had been "pretty debilitating"
in a December 2022 press release. Keith died in his sleep in
Oklahoma on February 5, 2024, at the age of 62.

The report also stated that Williams had been severely beaten
and kicked recently (during a fight in a Montgomery bar a few
days earlier).

Hiram "Hank" Williams was a singer-songwriter. He is regarded as
one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century. Williams recorded 55 singles that reached the top 10 of the Billboard Country & Western Best Sellers
chart, five of which were released posthumously, and 12 of which reached No.1.

Hank Williams was born Hiram King Williams in Mount Olive,
Alabama, to a family of strawberry farmers and log company
workers, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame. 
(From Wikipedia)

Jody Miller (November 29, 1941 – October 6, 2022)

(Fox News) – "Queen of the House" country singer Jody Miller has
died.

Miller died on Thursday in Blanchard, Oklahoma, from complications related to Parkinson’s disease, Fox News Digital confirmed.

Miller’s first single "He Walks Like a Man" hit the Billboard Hot 100
chart in 1964. She went on to win a Grammy Award for one of her
biggest hits, "Queen of the House," the following year.