Willie Nelson honored with Texas educational endowment

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Weeks after winning more Grammys, Willie Nelson is getting a new kind of honor: a university endowment in Texas.

The 89-year-old country music icon, who helped start the Farm Aid benefit concert in the 1980s, is the new Willie Nelson Endowment for Upliftment of Rural Communities at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs, the school announced. Wednesday.

The endowment will fund research and student fellowships benefiting rural and agricultural communities. The “Always on My Mind” singer has raised more than $70 million for the family’s ranch owners through Farm Aid, according to the school, which also plans to honor the Texas native at its May gala.

Larry Temple, chairman of the LBJ Foundation Board of Trustees, said in a statement, “Willie Nelson is a national treasure who rose to fame through his musical talent and won hearts as a man who cared about the lives of his fellow Americans. ”

At the Grammys last month, Nelson won best country album for “A Beautiful Time” and best country solo performance for “Live Forever.” He has won a dozen Grammys during his career.

He will receive the LBJ Foundation’s Liberty and Justice for All Award, joining a list of recipients that includes former US presidents, members of Congress and the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.