Mollie Bonder- Miriam Lynch (MO) 1934 Randolph C
[From Ozark Folksongs I, 1946 by Vance Randolph. His notes follow,
R. Matteson 2016]
54. MOLLY VAUGHN
The "Molly Vaughn" ballad was first printed in 1806, under the title "Peggy Baun" (Jamieson, Popular Ballads, 1806, I, p. 194). There are numerous American variants. Campbell bell and Sharp (English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, 1917, No. 40) give a version from North Carolina and a fragment from Tennessee, while Pound (American Ballad's and Songs, 1922, p. 78) reprints the song as Wyman heard it in Kentucky. Kittredge (JAFL 30, 1917 p. 358) reports several texts from Massachusetts and Kentucky, and gives many British and American references. Recently reported versions include those of Chappell (Folk Songs from Roanoke and the Albemarle, 1939, p. 101), Eddy (Ballads and Songs from Ohio, 1939, p. 192 Gardner (Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan,1939, pp. 66-67), Linscott (Folk Songs of Old New England, 1939, pp.274-276), Halpert (JAFL 52, 1939, pp. 56-58), Treat (JAFL 52, p. 32) and Morris (Southern Folklore Quarterly 8, 1944, p. 176). This ballad appears also in the Brown (North Carolina Folk-Lore Society) collection.
C. The song Ballet of Mollie Bonder- Miss Miriam Lynch, Notch, Mo., Sept. 12, 1934, showed me a manuscript copy entitled
-The song Ballet of Mollie Bonder," containing the following stanza:
You take all them pretty girls
And set them in a row,
Mollie Bonder shines amongst them
Like a mountain of snow.