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A decade ago, Merle Haggard<\/strong> died on the same day he turned 79 after sharing a premonition that his final moments would coincide with his birthday<\/a>.<\/p>\n The country music<\/a> singer fell ill with pneumonia in December 2015, postponing multiple concerts as he recovered in a California hospital. Three months later, Haggard was hospitalized again amid his ongoing battle with double pneumonia.<\/p>\n On the morning of April 6, 2016, Haggard died of complications from pneumonia at his California home. He had just turned 79 that day.<\/p>\n After the news broke of Merle\u2019s death, his son<\/a>Ben Haggard<\/strong> revealed that his famous father predicted his own death.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac <\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a> \ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cA week ago Dad told us he was gonna pass on his birthday<\/a>, and he wasn\u2019t wrong,\u201d Ben, then 22, wrote via Facebook at the time. \u201c[An] hour ago he took his last breath surrounded by family and friends. He loved everything about life and he loved that everyone [sic] of you gave him a chance with his music<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n He added, \u201cHe wasn\u2019t just a country singer. He was the best country singer that ever lived.\u201d<\/p>\n Merle was survived by his wife, Theresa Ann Lane<\/strong>\u2014whom he married in September 1993\u2014and his six children. He shared Dana<\/strong>, Marty<\/strong>, Kelli<\/strong> and Noel<\/strong> with ex-wife Leona Hobbs<\/strong> and Jenessa<\/strong> and Ben with Lane. (Two years after her father\u2019s death, Dana died in her sleep on April 10, 2018, at age 61.)<\/p>\n Three days after his death, Merle was laid to rest in a private service at his California ranch. Marty Stuart<\/strong> officiated the funeral, while Stuart and his wife, Connie Smith<\/strong>, Kris Kristofferson<\/strong>, Willie Nelson<\/a>\u2019s<\/strong> son Micah Nelson<\/strong> and Merle\u2019s sons performed musical tributes to the late star.<\/p>\n Born on April 6, 1937, in Oildale, California, Merle launched his music career<\/a> following his 1960 release from San Quentin Prison, where he served nearly three years for attempted robbery. He earned his first top 10 song with 1964\u2019s \u201c(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers\u201d and his first No. 1 single with 1966\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m a Lonesome Fugitive.\u201d <\/p>\n During the height of his success<\/a>, Merle released countless hits including 1968\u2019s \u201cMama Tried,\u201d<\/a> 1969\u2019s \u201cOkie From Muskogee,\u201d 1970\u2019s \u201cThe Fightin\u2019 Side of Me,\u201d<\/a> 1973\u2019s \u201cIf We Make It Through December,\u201d 1983\u2019s \u201cPancho and Lefty\u201d with Willie<\/a>, 1983\u2019s \u201cThat\u2019s the Way Love Goes\u201d (for which he won a Grammy<\/a> for Best Male Country Vocal Performance) and 1987\u2019s \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star.\u201d <\/p>\n A decade after Merle\u2019s death, he remains one of the most iconic artists in country music history. Cody Johnson<\/strong> paid tribute to the late singer with the Monday, April 6, release of his cover of \u201cFootlights,\u201d<\/a> the opening track from Merle\u2019s 1979 album, Serving 190 Proof.<\/p>\n \u201cMerle was a poet,\u201d Johnson, 38, said in a press release. \u201cWhen I\u2019m happy, when I\u2019m sad, when I\u2019m frustrated, and everything in between, he has sung the soundtrack of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n In a 2025 interview, Johnson shared the emotional impact Merle\u2019s death had on him as a fan, telling RFD-TV\u2019s On the Record at the time, \u201cHe\u2019s still the only artist that has ever passed away that I\u2019ve cried like he was a family member.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Apr 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A decade ago, Merle Haggard died on the same day he turned 79 after sharing a premonition that his final moments would coincide with his birthday. The country music singer fell ill with pneumonia in December 2015, postponing multiple concerts as he recovered in a California hospital. Three months later, Haggard was hospitalized again amid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2361741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[22691,458734,22846,458733,329432,358387,458732],"class_list":["post-2361740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-california","tag-complications-from-pneumonia","tag-country-music","tag-double-pneumonia","tag-marty-stuart","tag-merle-haggard","tag-theresa-ann-lane"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-Country-Legend-Who-Died-on-His-79th-Birthday.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2361740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361742,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2361740\/revisions\/2361742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2361740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2361740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2361740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}