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Singer Paul Craft. Image Credit: AP

Nashville songwriter and Hall of Famer Paul Craft has died in Tennessee at the age of 76.

The Tennessean reported that Craft died on Saturday at a Nashville hospital “after years of deteriorating health.”

Craft penned the words to songs made famous by the likes of Ray Stevens, Mark Chestnutt, Alison Krauss, the Eagles and Linda Rondstadt.

He was inducted earlier this month into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame after being nominated numerous times over the years.

The newspaper said Craft was also a member of American Mensa, a group for people whose IQ is in the top 2 per cent of the population.

Among his most well-known songs were Hank Williams, You Wrote My Life, Dropkick Me, Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life), Brother Jukebox, and It’s Me Again, Margaret, one of Stevens’ signature songs.