The renowned American singer-songwriter, actor, and poet Kris Kristofferson, who had a profound influence on country music and Hollywood, gently passed away at home in Maui on Saturday, September 28. At eighty-eight, he was. He died surrounded by loved ones, according to a heartfelt statement from his family: “We communicate with heavy hearts the news that our husband, father, and grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully. We feel incredibly lucky to have enjoyed this time with him. I know that when you see a rainbow, he is smiling down at all of us, and I am grateful for your affection for him over the years.
Kristofferson, who was born on June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas, has a lengthy and distinguished past in the country. His father, Swedish immigrant Lars Henry Kristofferson, rose to the rank of general in the U.S. Army Air Force, while his mother, Mary Ann Ashbrook, came from a line of educators and thinkers. Due to his father’s work, Kris was up in a strict military home and spent a lot of his childhood moving. Despite the regimentation, a young Kris discovered a love for music—a passion that would ultimately define his life.
Kris’s songwriting was inspired by his early travels and the people he encountered. At the age of eleven, he penned his debut song, “I Hate Your Ugly Face.” It was an early instance of the poetic wit and sarcastic humor that would later come to characterize a lot of his work. After his family relocated to San Mateo, California, when Kristofferson was a teenager, he began to cultivate his artistic skills in addition to his physical prowess.
In 1954, he enrolled at Pomona College, where he excelled both academically and athletically. Kris excelled as a football player, a Golden Gloves boxer, and the school newspaper’s sports editor. His tremendous successes swiftly got him on the cover of Sports Illustrate d’s 1958 “Faces in the Crowd” piece.
He earned a creative writing degree after his two short stories, “Gone Are the Days” and “The Rock,” were published in The Atlantic Monthly. Because of his outstanding writing, he was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study English literature at Merton College, Oxford University. Because of strong military lineage, Kristofferson’s family pushed him to follow on his father’s legacy. In 1960, Kris enrolled in the US Army after receiving his Oxford degree. Over the next five years, he gained helicopter piloting experience and eventually became a captain.
While stationed in West Germany, Kristofferson started a band with other soldiers and became determined to pursue music professionally. This was the period when he began to pursue songwriting seriously.
When Kris was on a brief leave from the Army in the early 1960s, he made his first trip to Nashville, the epicenter of country music. Drawn by the vibrant music scene, he made the life-changing choice to resign his commission in the Army and fully devote to a career in songwriting, despite the strong protests of his family, who disapproved of his decision to leave a brilliant military career behind.
