Kris Kristoffersen 1936- (Part I)

Kris Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas in 1936…

His father was an Army officer, so he travelled a lot as a child.  He graduated from High school in California, and he wanted to be a writer. He enrolled at Pomona College and graduated from there in 1958.  He was a talented athlete and played Rugby for his college.   He got a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford and went there, still intending to write…His family wanted him to go into the army and make it his career.   He enjoyed Oxford, and he kept up his sports activities.  He boxed, including a sparring match with the English boxer Henry Cooper.  However he was still determined to become a novelist.  He took up song writing and recorded a couple of songs, hoping that they would draw attention to to his writing.  But his brief musical career, under the name Kit Carson, was not successful.

In 1961, he married his girlfriend Flavia, and finally gave way to his family’s pressure to take up a career.  He also was willing to please them by choosing the military.  He attained the rank of Captain and was a helicopter pilot.  However the desire to write and play music was still strong in him and he was eventually to rebel against his middle class family.

In 1965, after a hitch in the Army, he decided to give it up and go to Nashville to pursue his dream of being a song writer.  His family all but disowned him, seeing him as rejecting their values.  His mother wanted him to take up a post as instructor in English Literature at West Point, but Kris preferred to become a janitor in Nashville, writing and trying to pitch his songs.   He was also able to work as a civilian helicopter pilot,  and went on writing.  He had a family to support and his son was in need of medical care, so he kept on working, but was still determined to write and try to sell his songs.  He and his wife divorced, later in the 60s.  Kris tried to sell one of his songs to Johnny Cash, Sunday Morning Coming Down.  Cash didn’t pay too much attention to it until Kris landed a helicopter on his property to get his attention. and as Kristoffersen put it, once Johnny had recorded the song he never had to work at  a regular job again....