Lyrics

Genevieve was 17; the fourth of seven children
from the piney woods of southeast Arkansas
Pretty as a movie star, Homecoming queen in ‘61
and all the county boys would come to call
But no one knew her beauty like her older brother William
And he came around most every single night
Her daddy would have killed if him her mama would have told him
and she pleaded “Ginny, don’t put up a fight”

Tommy was a rounder and he looked just like james dean
in a yellow fifty-seven Pontiac
meetin’ at the dairy bar and parkin’ on the square and
holding hands and stealing kisses in the back
he wanted in, she wanted out and they commenced to talk about
a plan to get the hell out of this town
And he could not afford a ring but Ginny didn’t want a thing
they hit the county line before sundown

William followed Genevieve and Tommy down to Texas
He tried to settle down and took a wife
Ginny had a baby and she named him after Tommy
And she did her best to make a better life
One Sunday afternoon she heard a knock and found her brother
Standin’ on the porch with whiskey on his breath.
And Tommy would killed him, lord, but Ginny never told him
‘Cause there’s things that you’ve just got to do yourself.

40 some years later Ginny’s mama sits alone and
thinks about the precious children she has lost
She lost Genevieve 5 years before she buried William
just a week before the 1st North Texas frost
Ginny’s little boy grew up to look just like his daddy
and he thinks about his mama every day
He remembers how she left him just a day before thanksgiving
and he thanks the lord she finally got away.