Hank Cochran (1935-2010), born in Isola, spent his early childhood there and became one of country music’s most prolific and revered songwriters. Born Garland Perry Cochran on August 2, 1935, he grew up amid family troubles during the Depression, was placed in a Memphis orphanage at age 9 after his parents divorced, later lived with his grandparents in Greenville, Mississippi, showed an early gift for poetry, left school after the 4th grade, and learned a few guitar chords from his uncle Otis Cochran before the two hitchhiked to New Mexico to work in the oilfields when he was 12. After a brief return to Mississippi, he went near Los Angeles at 16, met future rockabilly star Eddie Cochran, and formed the duo The Cochran Brothers; they made local appearances, opened for Lefty Frizzell, and recorded for the Ekko label in 1955, including “Two Blue Singing Stars,” a salute to Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. After relocating to Nashville in 1960, he signed with Pamper Music, teamed with Harlan Howard, and co-wrote “I Fall to Pieces,” which became a No. 1 hit for Patsy Cline; Cline then took his “She’s Got You” to No. 1 the next year. He also had a successful recording career, backing Justin Tubb on guitar at the Opry and charting seven singles, including Howard’s “Sally Was a Good Old Girl,” a Top 20 hit in 1962, though his singing career remained secondary to songwriting. His own ballad “Make the World Go Away,” after earlier success for Timi Yuro and Ray Price, became one of the biggest sellers in country music history when Eddy Arnold recorded it in a pop-oriented Nashville Sound arrangement. Credited with more than 300 songs, Cochran wrote or co-wrote major hits including “A Little Bitty Tear” and “Your Funny Way of Laughin’” for Burl Ives, “Don’t Touch Me” for Jeannie Seely, “A-11” for Johnny Paycheck and Buck Owens, “It’s Not Love, But It’s Not Bad” for Merle Haggard, “The Chair” and “Ocean Front Property” for George Strait, and “Set ‘Em Up Joe” for Vern Gosdin. Married to his fifth wife, Suzi, throughout his final 28 years, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 1974 and the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame in 2003, and he died in Nashville in 2010.
