Free Republic

In the 1969 single that became a career landmark, the peerless and fearless country artist was protesting about protesters.Merle Haggard poured his own life experience into the song that gave him a new signature at the end of the 60s. When he wrote “Okie From Muskogee,” as he told The Boot in 2010, the peerless and fearless country artist was protesting about protesters. ‘I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away’ “When I was in prison, I knew what it was like to have freedom taken away,” he said. “Freedom is everything. During Vietnam, there were all...

March 17, 1973: A special evening with country music legend Merle Haggard in the East Room of the White House on St. Patrick's Day, 1973. Includes performances and a reading of a poem Haggard wrote for First Lady Pat Nixon on the occasion of her birthday. The program was filmed and produced by the Naval Photographic Center. The Naval Photographic Center White House Motion Film Unit Collection consists of motion film coverage of selected official activities of President Nixon filmed between 1969 and 1974.

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn will finish out the current congressional session and then resign from his seat nearly two years before his term is scheduled to end, he said in a statement released late Thursday. […] Coburn, a physician from Muskogee, recently was diagnosed with a recurrence of prostate cancer, but said his decision was not about his health. …