Facts About Her
1-She has a sizable age gap with Merle Haggard.
Theresa Ann Lane was only in her 30s when they married, while Merle Haggard was in his 50s. The country legend admitted at first that he didn’t understand why Theresa Ann wanted to be with him.
“She’s a very young girl for a guy like me. We met at Lake Shasta, right in the middle of a strange period of my life … But it was a period in which I was not married, and I ran into this lady out there; she wasn’t married either — and I did everything in the world to run her off, to tell you the truth!” Merle once said. “I didn’t really think there was any reason why she could want to hang around with me, other than the wrong reasons. But she finally convinced me otherwise.”
2-She was initially interested in Merle Haggard’s guitarist first.
The night Theresa Ann Lane and Merle Haggard first met, she went with Haggard’s guitarist, Clint Strong. They were heading to Strong’s room when Merle saw Theresa. He asked Strong to go get a guitar and meet them in the room.
“He said, ‘I’ll take her up to the room, and we’ll meet you up there,’” Theresa recalled.
When Strong arrived, Merle had the door locked. “There’s bangin’ on the door, and it’s Clint,” Theresa said. “And Merle says, ‘Get out of here! She’s my woman now. You don’t know how to treat a woman. Get out of here, or I’m going to fire your ass.’”
3-She also writes songs
According to Merle, Theresa can sing and write really good songs. “She’s a real good writer, and that’s kind of how we got to liking each other, was through writing and her desiring to be a writer,” Merle once said. “She wanted me to teach her to write, and hell, she knew how to write. She just needed a little direction.”
4-Her son pursued a career in music.
Theresa Ann Lane’s only son, Ben Haggard, has followed the footsteps of his legendary dad. He got his start in country music by performing with his father. At the age of 15, he was already his father’s lead guitarist.
When Merle died in 2016, he and his half-brother Noel, kept touring with the rest of the band. He sang Merle’s songs and covered other classic country hits. Before his father died, the country legend told Ben, “You’d be an idiot not to take my guitar and my bus, not to sing my songs for as long as you can… Go out there and play until there’s nobody to play to.”
Without a doubt, Theresa Ann Lane was a keeper.
