Why Merle Haggard Didn’t Receive His High School Diploma Until 78
on Apr 24, 2026
Merle Haggard Was A High School Dropout
It is no secret that country music legend Merle Haggard had a troubled youth. Even though he went on to be a Kennedy Center Honoree and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame (among other accolades), the California native traversed a rocky road to success.
In his teens, Merle was enrolled at Bakersfield High School but dropped out after attending only 9 days during his freshman year. In addition to skipping school, the teenager began getting into fights and dabbling in petty crime.
The future star spent time in one of California’s most notorious reform schools, the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility, but often escaped or violated probation.
By 1957, he found himself serving time in San Quentin Prison, where he was in the audience for Johnny Cash‘s famous performance the following year. That became a pivotal moment for Merle. He later said that Johnny Cash helped him see a path forward outside of crime.
The challenges Merle faced as a young man, including poverty, loss, and incarceration, served as inspiration for his music. He earned the nickname “the poet of the common man” for his grit and authentic songwriting, which resonated with hardworking Americans facing the struggles of daily life.
RELATED: MERLE HAGGARD HAD FOUR SONS, AND THEY’RE ALL COUNTRY SINGERS
60 Years Later: Merle Haggard Graduates
On April 25th, 2015, six decades after he (briefly) attended Bakersfield High School, Merle Haggard received an honorary diploma. At the urging of his friend and former grade school classmate, Don Hemingway, the then 78-year-old received the honor despite never having passed a single high school course.
Baskerfield High School principal David Reese presented him with the diploma in an informal gathering in an alley outside Bakersfield’s Fox Theater. He asserted:
“Well, once a Driller, always a Driller.”
Ironically, Merle received an honorary doctorate degree from California State University, Bakersfield, before he even had a high school diploma. He received the degree in 2013 in recognition of his immense influence on country music and his role in popularizing “The Bakersfield Sound.”
Merle Haggard passed away on April 6, 2016, just shy of one year after symbolically graduating high school. Rest in peace, Hag!
