Expert Girl- Lucile Morris (MO) 1933 Randolph D
[My title. From: Randolph, Ozark Folksongs; 4 vols. 1946-50; reprinted Columbia, 1980, II, 92. Randolph notes follow. I've renamed some of his versions by creating local titles. This is a version of Wexport Girl" and has the two stanza ending.
Randolph attributes his versions to the local murder of Lula Noel in 1892 which, according to a report in History of McDonald County, Missouri (1897), is "One of the most appalling crimes ever committed in McDonald county was the murder of Mary Lula Noel daughter of W. H. and S. E. Noel on the 10 day of December, 1892." Lula Noel and William Simmons (the convicted murderer) are not mentioned in Randolph's versions and neither are the locations Lanagan and Joplin.
The attribution is a stretch but in some versions he acquired corresponding testimony (Version B, for example).
R. Matteson 2016]
D. The following text of "The Expert Girl" was contributed by Miss Lucile Morris, Springfield, Mo., Feb. 22, 1933.
'Twas in the town of Echo, was where I used to dwell,
But in the town of Expert I owned a flouring mill,
I fell in love with an Expert girl, and rolling was her eyes,
I fell in love with another girl, and loved her just nice.
. . . . .
. . . . .
My father he persuaded me to make this girl my wife,
The devil he persuaded me to take away her life.
I called up to her sister's house, was eight o'clock at night,
And little did this poor girl think that I owed her a spite,
I called on her to take a walk out over the meadow so gay,
Perhaps we'd have a private talk to point the wedding day.
Together we walked and together we talked till we come to level ground,
And picking up a stick of hedge I knocked this poor girl down,
She fell upon her bended knees, for mercy's sake she cried,
Sweet Willie, do not murder me here, I'm not prepared to die.
But little attention did I pay and only beat her more,
Until the ground we stood upon was in a bloody gore,
I picked her up by her long yellow hair and slung her round and round,
I drug her to the river and throwed her in to drowned.
Lie there, lie there, you Expert girl, you ne'er shall be my bride,
Lie there, lie there, you Expert girl, to me you'll ne'er be tied.
I called up to my mother's house, was twelve o'clock at night,
My mother being restless, she woke up in a fright.
My God, my son, what have you done to bloody your hands and clothes?
The answer that she got from me was bleeding at the nose,
I called to her for a handkerchief to bind my aching head,
And also for a candlestick to light my way to bed"
. . . . .
. . . . .
I kicked and tossed and rolled around, no comfort could I find,
The flames of hell around my bed and in my eyes did shine.
In just about three weeks or four this poor girl she was found,
A-floating down the river that runs through Expert town.
They took me on suspicion, locked me in the Expert jail,
There was no one a friend to me, no one to go my bail"
. . . .
. . . .
Her sister swore my life away, without a bit of doubt,
She swore I was the same young man that called her sister out.
Come all you false-hearted lovers, take warning now by me[1],
And never treat your own true love in any severity,
For if you do you sure will rue the day until you die,
And hanged you'll be upon the tree, a murderer's death you'll die.
1. supplied by the same informant- apparently a different version (Randolph E)