 Merle Haggard Dead On 79th Birthday 
 
 Merle Haggard Dies On 79th Birthday 
 
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 Country music legend Merle Haggard has died after battling double pneumonia ... according to his manager. Haggard was diagnosed with pneumonia last year and spent 11 days at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage early this year. A life-long friend of Haggard confirmed the news to 23ABC and added that country music icon passed away Wednesday morning at his home just after 9 am, surrounded by family. Haggard was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994, he is in the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.
– The music world has lost an icon: Merle Haggard died Wednesday on his 79th birthday, reports TMZ. He'd been fighting double pneumonia since last year. Haggard was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994, and as ABC23 notes, he "won just about every music award" over a career that gave him 40 No. 1 hits. Perhaps his biggest, "Mama Tried" from 1968, was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry earlier this year. Haggard was a big part of the "outlaw" country movement with the likes of Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Waylon Jennings. The Tennessean has a full tribute to the "working man's poet."