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Kinky Friedman, Proudly Eccentric Texas Singer-Songwriter, Dead at 79

Kinky Friedman, the proudly eccentric Texas singer-songwriter and folk hero, has died at age 79

Kinky Friedman, the eccentric country singer-songwriter whose musings, novels, one-liners and quixotic gubernatorial run made him a folk hero, died at age 79 at his home in Texas. After a series of cult albums failed to register commercially, Friedman switched gears and embarked on a successful career as a novelist and, eventually, a columnist at Texas Monthly, where his Texanist column introduced readers nationwide to his dark wit and slapstick pathos. Following his death, Friedman’s estate posted an excerpt from one of his columns in 1993, this one about his lifelong devotion to animals: “They say when you die and go to heaven all the dogs and cats you’ve ever had in your life come running to meet you.”

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