TOM T. Hall was known as an American country music songwriter, singer, instrumentalist, novelist, and short-story writer.
On August 20, 2021, it was announced that the country music legend died at the age of 85.
Who was Tom Hall?
Born May 25, 1936, Hall was known for writing 12 No. 1 songs including, Hello Vietnam, I Love, Country Is, and Faster Horses.
The son of a preacher, Hall turned to music when he was just a child. He quit school after his mother passed away and a hunting accident left his father disabled.
Prior to his musical success, Hall joined the U.S. Army 1957 and served for four years, following his release, he settled in Nashville and turned to writing music.
Throughout his career, Hall also wrote five books, including:
- The storyteller’s Nashville
- The Songwriter’s Handbook
- The Acts of Life: Tales Tom T. Hall
- The Laughing Man of Woodmont Coves Tom T. Hall
- Tom T. Hall’s Country Songs for Children
In 1972 Hall won the Grammy for the Best Album Notes category for his album, Tom T. Hall’s Greatest Hits.
Hall was credited with bring storytelling to music unlike ever before alongside Kris Kristofferson and Billy Joe Shaver and over the years was able to amass a net worth of $5 million.
What was Tom Hall’s cause of death?
On August 20, his death was confirmed by his son, Dean Hall, but a cause was not provided.
“With great sadness, my father, Tom T. Hall, died this morning at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. Out family asks for privacy during this difficult time,” he tweeted.
Following his death, the Country Music Hall of Fame, also released a statement.
“Tom T. Hall’s masterworks vary in plot, tone, and tempo, but they are bound by his ceaseless and unyielding empathy for the triumphs and losses of others,” Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young said.
“He wrote without judgment or anger, offering a rhyming journalism of the heart that sets his compositions apart from any other writer. He was a storyteller, a philosopher, a whiskey maker, a novelist, a poet, a painter, a benefactor, a letter writer, a gift giver, a gentleman farmer, and many more things.”
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Was Tom Hall married?
Throughout his 85 years of life, Hall was married twice.
In 1961, Hall first married Opal Inez McKinney, and in the same year, they welcome their first child, Dean.
According to Dean’s website, his father and mother met after Hall returned home from the military and was searching for work.
After meeting at a restaurant and entertainment center in Morehead, Kentucky, Hall and McKinney started dating.
On February 16, 1961, the two got married but after a dispute over restaurant ownership between McKinney and Dean’s grandfather, Hall left town before his son was even born.
Despite not being there for his childhood, Dean followed in his father’s footsteps and became a blues-rock singer, songwriter, musician, producer, and part-time poet.
Dean’s mother tragically died at the age of 58, on March 10, 1985, after a battle with cancer.
From there, Dean and his father rekindled their relationship and prior to his death, his website states that they “often hang out at his farm outside of Nashville.”
“We mostly talk about poetry, philosophy, religion, or songwriting—you know: the easy stuff. Oh, and how we found all those roads eventually lead back home,” Dean said.
Seven years after he married his first wife, Hall remarried Iris Violet May Lawrence, who famously went by the name Dixie Hall.
Like Hall, Dixie was also a musician.
Dixie was known as a bluegrass and country music songwriter, a music journalist, an animal rights activist, and an independent record label boss.
Despite 47 years of marriage, the two never had children of their own.
Dixie passed away back in 2015 at the age of 80.