Kris Kristofferson, Songwriter Whose Poetic Lyrics Transcended Genre, Dead at 88

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, when Kristofferson was in junior high. A model student who earned the nickname “Straight Arrow,” he graduated from high school in San Mateo in 1954, and went on to study creative writing at Pomona College, winning several prizes in a short-story contest sponsored by Atlantic Monthly magazine. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1958, he received a Rhodes scholarship to England’s Oxford University.

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