2016 In Memoriam: Country Stars We Lost This Year
Merle Haggard and Joey Feek were among the country-music personalities who died in 2016


Merle Haggard and Joey Martin Feek were among the country-music personalities we lost in 2016.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty, Kevin Winter/Getty
As just this past week proved with the deaths of Carrie Fisher and George Michael, 2016 was a brutal year for the arts. And country music was not immune. The genre lost legendary performers, cornerstone songwriters and even young artists over the past year. We look back at the careers of some of the top country-music personalities who died in 2016.