Clancy Carlile; ‘Honkytonk Man’ Author

Clancy Carlile, the half-Cherokee drifter and admitted enfant terrible who survived an erratic childhood to write a series of successful novels, including “The Honkytonk Man,” which was made into a profitable 1982 film starring Clint Eastwood, has died.

Leonard Gardner, a longtime family friend, said Carlile, who was born Clarence Lawson Carlile, died of cancer June 4 in Austin, Texas. He was 68.

Gardner said the novelist and screenwriter was staying at the J. Frank Dobie Ranch on a writing fellowship under the auspices of the University of Texas. He normally lived in Los Angeles.

Carlile, in a lengthy 1981 interview with the Sacramento Bee, told of his rocky early life and formative years as a writer. Although he had been writing since the early 1960s, mostly short stories, he struggled until 1982, when the financial success of “Honkytonk” eased his way.

Before turning out “Children of the Dust,” a novel in which the settling of Oklahoma was explored, or “The Honkytonk Man,” about the life and death of a country singer, Carlile had experienced less esoteric fare.

He was expelled from the 10th grade for throwing a book at a teacher, was the rebel in a generally conformist family, fought wildfires, taught school, remodeled old San Francisco homes, harvested crops with his family and drove trucks, cooked hamburgers and pumped gas.

He also claimed to have pulled armed robberies, but was never arrested.

Carlile said serving in the Army in Korea turned his life around and he wearied of being a punk.

He earned a master’s degree at San Francisco State and in 1963 published “As I Was Young and Easy,” about a boy and his dog.

“Children of the Dust” was made into a TV miniseries starring Sidney Poitier. It also won the 1996 NAACP Image Award.

Just before his death, he published “Paris Pilgrims,” about expatriate artists in the 1920s.

Survivors include a son, Steven, of Brownsville, Ore., four grandchildren and two sisters.