George Collins- Josh Sharp (KY) 1957 Roberts A
[From: In the Pine, Roberts 1978. An excerpt of his notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
Only one other instance of the ballad, it seems, has been collected in Kentucky-Combs FKH, p. 8. I have five in my collection. Two of them have the opening stanza about the hobo (one mentioned by Davis, MTBV, but not printed. None suggest the cause of Collins's sickness (girlfriend, mermaid of Coffin's Type A), or the lily from the grave motif (Type C). Three contain the mother's attempt at consolation (Coffin's Type B); some have the turtle-dove ending (Type D).
A. GEORGE COLLINS- collected in 1957 without music by Rosella Shaw, from Josh Sharp, both of Whitley County, KY.
1. George Collins rode home one cold rainy night
George Collins rode home so fine
George Collins rode home one cold rainy night
And taken sick and died.
2. Little Hattie was sitting in her mother's room
A-sewing on silk so fine
When she heard poor George had died,
She laid her silk aside.
3. She followed him up, she followed him down
She followed him to his grave;
And there upon her knees she fell,
She wept, she moaned, she prayed.
4. She sat down on the coffin, take off the lid,
Fold back the linen so fine
That I may kiss his cold, pale lips,
For I know he'll never kiss mine.
5. The happiest hours I ever spent
Were by George Collins' side;
The saddest news I ever heard
Was that George Collins had died.
6. O, don't you see the turtledove,
As he flies from pine to pine?
He weeps, he moans for his own true love
Just as I wept for mine.