Composer

Leon Payne

June 15, 1917 – September 11, 1969

Leon Roger Payne, "the Blind Balladeer", was an American country music singer/songwriter. He was blind in one eye at birth, and lost the sight in the other eye in early childhood. Payne wrote hundreds of country songs in a prolific career that lasted from 1941 until his death in 1969. He is perhaps best known for his hits "I Love You Because", "You've Still Got a Place in My Heart", "Psycho", "Worst of Luck" and the 1948 song "Lost Highway", a song made famous by Hank Williams in 1949.