On this day (June 27) in 2024, the world bade farewell to one of its most uniquely irreverent and provocative voices. Kinky Friedman, 79, died at his home at Echo Hill Ranch in Medina, Texas, of Parkinson’s disease.
Meet Kinky Friedman
A novelist, humorist, singer-songwriter, and all-around agitator, Richard Samet “Kinky” Friedman was born in Chicago on November 1, 1944.
His family moved to the Texas Hill Country when he was young, where they founded the Echo Hill Ranch summer camp near Kerrville.
Friedman showed an early aptitude for chess, becoming one of 50 Houston-area players to challenge U.S. grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky at just seven years old…