Friend of Del Reeves. Talked Del into moving from California to Nashville
in 1962.
His parents divorced when he was 9 years old and he was placed in a Memphis orphanage. He ran away to live with his grandparents in Mississippi where he started singing and playing guitar in his grandfather's church.
When he was 12 years old, he dropped out of school and hitch-hiked to New Mexico to work with his uncle on an oil rig.
He is survived by his second wife, Suzi Cochran; a daughter Booth
Cochran and three sons, Garland Perry Cochran Jr.; James Lee Cochran;
and Daniel Cochran from his first marriage to Jeannie Seely.
He was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Association International Hall of Fame in 1974.
[on his songwriting in 2007]: I always tried to make it short, make it sweet, and make it rhyme.
[on discovering songwriting while working in the oil rig in 2002]: They said I'd be back because if you ever got oil in your hair, you'd return to it. Wrong!