Day 6, June 8, 2009
Today I started looking at one of the many collections of murder ballads housed in the Special Collections library at Berea. I found this asymmetrical, pared down, eastern Kentucky version of “Barbara Allen” collected from Rendy York, age 78, Bell County, Ky., in 1957. Don’t you love this?
One pleasant May morning
When the June buds they were swelling
He courted her seven long years
Her name was Barbara Allen
She said she would not marry him
Purty William he went home and taken sick
He sent for Barbara Allen
She walked in by his bedside she said
“Young man you are dying”
He turned his pale face to the wall
and busted out to crying
As she walked down them long stair steps
She heard some death bells ringing
Ever bell seem to say
Hard-hearted Barbara Allen
As she walked down that shady grove
She heard some birds singing
Ever bird seem to say
Hard-hearted Barbara Allen
She saw his corpse a-coming
“Lay him down I want to look upon him.
I could’ve saved his life but I wouldn’t”
She busted out to crying
Mother, go dig my grave
Both wide and deep
Purty William died for me today
I will die for him tomorrow
From Purty William’s grave there sprung a rose
From Barbara Allen’s a brier
They grew so high they tied in a true love-knot
And the rose wropped around the brier.
–from the Berea College Special Collections, Hutchins Library
Marianne Worthington 