Merle Haggard died Wednesday on his 79th birthday.

Haggard died at his home in Palo Cedro, California, after a months-long battle with double pneumonia, according to his manager Frank Mull, who spoke to the Associated Press.

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Haggard, who was born in California, had spent 11 days in a hospital earlier this year and that he had recently canceled his tour. He was previously scheduled to perform at the Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels on April 15 with Willie Nelson.

The blue-collar embodiment of country music’s Bakersfield Sound, Haggard was an outlaw before outlaw country was cool. He did a stretch in San Quentin State Prison, where he heard Johnny Cash play, and performed in the prison’s country band.

A stellar singer and songwriter, Haggard drew on his hardscrabble roots in early hits about working men and outlaws reckoning with the choices they made: “Mama Tried,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “The Fighting Side of Me,” “A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today.”

Starting with the 1982 hit “Pancho and Lefty,” Haggard also had a long association with Texas country icon Willie Nelson. Their 2015 album “Django and Jimmie” featured the song “It’s All Going to Pot” – a musical about-face for the man who sang “Okie From Muskogee” — and the two had planned the three-day run at Whitewater Amphitheater.

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"A week ago dad told us he was gonna pass on his birthday, and he wasn't wrong," Haggard's son, Ben, said in a Facebook post. "He loved everything about life and he loved that everyone of you gave him a chance with his music. He wasn't just a country singer.. He was the best country singer that ever lived."

kparker@mysa.com

Twitter: @KoltenParker