Hank Cochran Passes On

Hank Cochran, one of country music’s most storied and prolific songwriters who wrote songs for Patsy Cline, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, Merle Haggard, George Strait an many others passed away yesterday morning. His Wikipedia bio reads like a  Mother lode for source for country gold:

Born during the Great Depression in Isola, Mississippi, he contracted pneumonia, whooping cough, measles and mumps all about the same time at age 2. The doctor didn’t think that he would survive. His parents divorced when he was 9, he moved with his father to Memphis, Tennessee, but then went to an orphanage. He was sent to live with his grandparents, in Waynesboro, Mississippi, after he had run away from the orphanage twice. His uncle Otis Cochran taught him how to play the guitar as the pair hitchhiked  from Mississippi to southeastern New Mexico to work in the oilfields.

and my persoan favorite.

While working at publishing company Pamper Music, he used to spend nights playing at a Nashville bar called Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. While there a new guy showed up and Cochran was amazed, he then encouraged management to sign the young songwriter, Willie Nelson, giving Nelson a raise that was coming to him at the time.

This from the press release:

Last night, Jamey Johnson, Billy Ray Cyrus and Buddy Cannon dropped by to sing songs with Hank, and this morning the legendary songwriter was surrounded by family and friends when he passed away at his Hendersonville, Tennessee home. A private, family memorial will be held in the near future, and a public service will follow. Details will be forthcoming.

The family asks that you respect their privacy at this time and, in lieu of flowers, request those wishing to honor Hank make donations to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Foundation.

Hank was inducted in to the Nashville Songwriters Association International Hall of Fame by unanimous vote in 1974, and was honored by B.M.I. in June 2009 for his six-decade long career of hits, that includes country classics: “I Fall To Pieces,” “Make The World Go Away,” “Ocean Front Property,” “The Chair” and “Don’t You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me.”

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