Pretty Molly- Pauline Ramsay (KY-CA) 1941 Todd/Sonkin
[From LOC recording AFC 1985/001; Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Workers Collection. The informant was from Kentucky and learned the ballad there.
R. Matteson 2016]
Pretty Molly- Sung by Pauline Ramsay, (Performer) Visalia FSA Camp, August 13, 1941
Listen: https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000276/
Pretty Molly, Pretty Molly
Come go along with me
Before we get married
Some friends for to see
He lead her o'er hollers
And valleys so deep
At last Pretty Molly
Began for to weep
Sweet William, sweet William
Yore leading me astray
An innocent love
You shall betray
Pretty Molly, pretty Molly
Yore guessin' jest right
For I dug at yore grave
One half of last night
Stand back, stand back
No time, to stand
And innocent he stood
With a big knife in his hand
He stabbed her to the heart
And her blood it did flow
And into her grave
Her body did go
Now ladymens and gentlemens
I bid you do right
For Gray[1] was distracted
And died the same night.
1. he; Gray=Sweet William ?