Hank Thompson, who died on 6 November, 2007, was a mainstay of the country music scene for six decades.

He forged his own unique sound by blending honky-tonk with swing and became a popular television personality with his broad grin, cowboy get-up and amiable nature.

He sold more than 60 million records during his long career – including more than 50 US chart hits – and at the height of his fame he was performing more than 250 shows a year.

Henry William Thompson was born in Waco, Texas, on 3 September, 1925. He was interested in music from an early age and won several amateur harmonica contests. When he became captivated by Gene Autry, ‘The Singing Cowboy’, he decided to change instruments.

His first guitar cost four dollars and was given as a Christmas present from his parents. By the time he left school at 16, a local flour company was sponsoring his performances on local radio under the name ‘Hank the Hired Hand’.

After America became involved in the Second World War, Mr Thompson enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific theatre, continuing to perform for fellow soldiers. After the war he studied electronics at Princeton – his expert knowledge later meant he had the best light-and-sound system in the business.

Whilst toying with a potential career in engineering, he released a few singles on a local label. This brought him to the attention of country legend Tex Ritter. Ritter helped him land a recording contract with Capitol who released his first nationally-charting record, Humpty Dumpty Heart (1948), and brought success to one of his earlier songs, Whoa, Sailor (originally recorded in 1946).

The 1950s was his most successful period with The Wild Side of Life (1952) reaching Number One and a string of top 10 hits including Waiting in the Lobby of Your Heart, Rub-A-Dub-Dub, Wake Up, Irene and Honky Tonk Girl. He became esteemed as one of the best songwriters on the scene, as well as for possessing one of the smoothest baritone voices in the business.

1954 saw The Hank Thompson Show hit the airwaves and he was among the first country performers to appear in Las Vegas, later resulting in Live at the Golden Nugget, one of the earliest country live albums. His band, the highly-rated Brazos Valley Boys, toured exhaustively and Mr Thompson flew from gig to gig in his own plane.

Though the 1960s would be a barren period on the charts (with a seven-year gap between top 10 hits Oklahoma Hills" (1961) and On Tap, in the Can, or in the Bottle (1968), he proved to be an enduringly popular guest on network television variety shows.

He managed a couple more hits in the ’70s, but became disillusioned with the direction country music was taking. Mr Thompson was a traditionalist who eschewed the ‘Nashville Sound’ in favour of his honky-tonk roots. His chart positions suffered as a result and his touring was pared down.

His principles paid off as a return to harder-edged country music in the 1980s saw a revival of his fortunes, with new-found popularity in the Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America, and he recorded and toured regularly.

His 1997 collection of duets with the country stars of the day, Hank Thompson and Friends, won critical acclaim and the single Gotta Sell Them Chickens, sung with Junior Brown, meant that he had charted in six consecutive decades. He joked this was "a lot easier than doing it in six non-consecutive decades".

He continued to perform until October 2007, playing his last show in his hometown of Waco, and only announced his retirement after being diagnosed with lung cancer a few days before his death at the age of 82. He was survived by his second wife, Ann.

He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989 and to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997. He said he didn’t want a funeral and instead requested that a memorial show be staged at one of his favourite honky-tonk bars, Billy Bob's Texas.