Freddy Fender, known as the “Bebop Kid” died yesterday aged 69. He had been diagnosed as suffering from lung cancer early this year and he died surrounded by his family in Corpus Christi, finally at peace.

He had a hard passage from the Mexico border where he was born, battling with long term drug and alcohol abuse. The legacy of this was diabetes which in turn needed a kidney transplant.

His biggest hit was “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” climbing to No. 1 on the pop and country charts.Other hits included “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” which got to number one on the country charts, as did “Secret Love” and “You’ll Lose a Good Thing”.

Fender born Baldemar Huerta was so proud of his Mexican heritage that he nearly always sang a part of his hits, even if only a phrase in Spanish. “Teardrop” had a verse in Spanish.

He played with Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez and others in two Tex-Mex all-star series the Texas Tornado’s and Los Super Seven.

He won a Grammy Pop Album in 2002 for “La Musica de Baldemar Huerta.” He also shared in two Grammys one with the Texas Tornados, which won in 1990 for “Soy de San Luis,” and with Los Super Seven in the same category in 1998 for “Los Super Seven.”

He appeared with Robert Redford in the 1987 film, “The Milagro Beanfield War”.

Fender was born in 1937 in San Benito, the South Texas border town credited for spawning the Mexican sound of conjunto. His parents were migrant crop pickers, a work hew was to share before hitting the big time.

Even as a child he had sung and he had won a singing competition and claimed a bath full of food for his prize.

During the 1950’s he served with the Marines, and upon his discharge he recorded Spanish-language versions of Elvis’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and Harry Belafonte’s “Jamaica Farewell.” Both of these were hits in South America and Mexico.

He smartened his image and reinvented himself in the late fifties when he named himself Freddy Fender. Freddy was the name of his electric guitar, and Fender complemented it.

His first recording under the new name was “Wasted Days” in 1960. However the new name was not sufficient to protect his image and keep him out of trouble. He spent three years in prison in the sixties for possessing marijuana.

It was hard for him to recover from that, in the sixties that crime was serious! He once said he sang in bars so dingy he performed with his eyes shut whilst dreaming he had made it and was on the Ed Sullivan show.

“I felt there’s no great American dream for this ex-Chicano migrant farm worker,” he said. “I’d picked too many crops and too many strings.”

However he was to get the proverbial second chance in 1974 he recorded “Before the Next Teardrop Falls”, once that had become a hit he won the Academy of Country Music’s best new artist award in 1975. On the back of this success he re-recorded “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and it climbed to the top of the charts as well.

Cristina Balli, spokeswoman for the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Centre in San Benito, said I think he was the precursor to Los Lonely Boys.”

However he was still trying to rebuild his life, quite literally, he underwent a kidney transplant in 2002, the kidney was donated from his daughter Marla Huerta Garcia. In 2004 he had a new liver, and this year had tumours not been found in his lungs, he would have had lung surgery.

“I feel very comfortable in my life,” Fender told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times in August. “I’m one year away from 70 and I’ve had a good run. I really believe I’m OK. In my mind and in my heart, I feel OK. I cannot complain that I haven’t lived long enough, but I’d like to live longer.”

Baldemar Huerta will be brought back to his home town San Benito, for the funeral. Details of a memorial service have not yet been released.