Billy Dee Williams

On April 6, 1937, in Bakersfield, California, County of Kern Merle Ronald Haggard was born at Kern General Hospital in Bakersfield, to James and Flossie Haggard. Having two elder siblings, brother Lowell and sister Lillian.

 Merle was little more than a juvenile delinquent and truant miscreant, spending time in the reform school as a teenager, he was finally declared incorrigible by the California Adult Authority in March of 1957 at age 18.
 On January 30, 1958 Merle was sentenced to five years in San Quentin, of which he spent 2 years and 9 months. On March 1, 1972 Governer Ronald Wilson Reagan granted Merle a full and unconditional Pardon. Convict ID number A-45200 would be cancelled forever.
 After 40 years on the road, 5 marriages, 6 children and a turbulent life, Merle now lives in solitude in Palo Cedro, California with his wife Theresa and their two children, Ben and Janessa.
His father died when Merle was nine, and he was raised in a converted boxcar that his father James built, from the age of nine on, he was raised by mother Flossie who died in 1984. Merle is a legend, and when one thinks about his life and his roots, then one can think, anything is possible in America.
 Submitted by Arie Gurion email solofrtn@msn.com 1/17/04--just thought my pal the "Hag" ought to be listed on notable births of 1937.