As the songwriter of legendary compositions like “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” and “Me and Bobby McGee,” Kris Kristofferson transformed lyrics into literature, elevating the craft to a legitimate American art form in a way few had done before. Part Romantic poet, part folk troubadour, part country-music storyteller, Kristofferson died Saturday at the age of 88. A spokesperson for Kristofferson, Ebie McFarland, confirmed the musician’s death, adding that the “artist, singer, songwriter, actor and activist .
.. passed away peacefully in his home in Maui, Hawaii .
.. surrounded by family.
” Songwriting was merely one aspect to the Renaissance man, who was also a Golden Globe-winning actor, Golden Gloves boxer, Rhodes scholar, author, U.S. Army veteran, pilot, and onetime record-label janitor.
But it was his penetrating lyricism that caused a seismic shift in the perception of country music by the late Sixties. Well-educated (with a military discipline) though he was, he quickly fell in with the freshman class of “outlaw” singer-songwriters that would buck the star system and influence generations to come. The eldest of three children, Kristoffer Kristofferson was born June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas.
His father, Lars, the son of a Swedish army veteran, was a pilot and a major general in the U.S. Air Force who went on to work for Pan American Airways.
The family moved frequently, settling in San Mateo, California, w.
