Hank Thompson, 82, a singer, guitarist and songwriter who became a prolific western swing hitmaker with upbeat music about beer drinking and broken hearts, died Nov. 6 at his home in Keller, Tex ...

In the early 1950s, country star Hank Thompson went into his then-state-of-the-art homestudio in Oklahoma City and made a series of recordings for radio.

Thompson was born in Waco, Texas, on September 3, 1925, and grew up listening to western swing and country musicians such as Gene Autry and Bob Wills. His father was a railroad engineer. By the time ...