Waco Girl- Ray Barlow (TN-TX) 1956 Anderson B
[From: "The Waco Girl": Another Variant of a British Broadside Ballad by John Q. Anderson; Western Folklore, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Apr., 1960), pp. 107-118; Published by: Western States Folklore Society. Anderson's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
B. THE WACO GIRL- contributed by Ray C. Barlow, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas. His mother, whose parents came from Tennessee, taught it to him. It is recorded on tape in the Archives of the Texas Folklore Society, Austin.
"All around the Waco town
I used to live and dwell;
All around the Waco town,
I owned a flour mill.
"I fell in love with a Waco girl
With dark and rolling eyes.
I asked her to take a walk with me
And view the meadows so bright.
"We walked along, we talked along
'Till we came to the level ground.
I picked up a piece of new cut wood
And knocked the poor girl down.
"She fell upon her bended knees
And 'Lord, have mercy,' she cried,
Saying, 'Willie, my dear, don't murder me here,
I'm not prepared to die.' "
But heed, oh, heed, not a word did he,
But he beat her more and more
Until the ground was bloody all around
And the blood ran to and fro.
He picked her up by her long yellow hair
And swung her round and round,
And threw her into the river
That runs by Waco town.
"Lie there, lie there, you Waco girl,
For me you wouldn't be tied;
Lie there, lie there, you Waco girl,
For you never shall be my bride."
"I went into my mother's house
At twelve o'clock that night
My mother being weary
Woke up then in a fright.
"Saying, 'Son, O son, what have you done
To bloody your hands and clothes?'
The answer that I gave her
Was bleeding at the nose.
"Three weeks had passed;
This Waco girl, her body it was found
A-floating on the river
That runs through Waco town.
"They put me on suspicion
And I was locked in jail;
No one to entertain me;
No one to go my bail."