Country Legend Hank Thompson Dies in Texas

11/7/2007 Stephen L. Betts Hank Thompson, whose career in country music spanned six decades, has died, a spokesman said Wednesday. According to KWTX.com, the Waco, Texas, native died Tuesday night at his home in Keller, Texas. He was battling aggressive lung cancer. His spokesperson, Tracy Pitcox says Hank died peacefully surrounded by his friends and family. Word of the death comes just four days after he had announced his retirement, and less than a month after he was honored in Waco, where he performed at the Heart of Texas Fair. That performance was his last. The 82-year-old singer was released from a suburban Dallas hospital last Wednesday. By mayoral and gubernatorial proclamation, Oct. 8 was designated as Hank Thompson Day in Waco and in Texas. His death comes just 10 days after another Country Music Hall of Fame member, Porter Wagoner, passed away after battling lung cancer as well. Hank Thompson got his start in Waco, where as a youngster he won several amateur harmonica competitions, before his parents bought him a $4 secondhand guitar. By the time he finished high school, he was a regular on WACO radio. He went on to enlist in the Navy and studied electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas and Princeton University before leaving the service and launching what would become a stellar music career. Between 1948 and 1974, he produced 29 top ten hits and continued to chart into the 1980s. His first No. 1 record was 1952’s “The Wild Side of Life.” Hank Thompson was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.