Jim Gayley- Majors (Kansas) c.1959 Max Hunter Folk Song Collection
[From the Max Hunter Collection. A version with this title and nearly identical text also appears in the Ozark Collection (Parler B). Majors is a fine singer and collector. She may not be the original informant of this version. It's likely based on Cyrmes 1954 version.
R. Matteson 2015]
Jim Gayley - As sung by Fran Majors, Wichita, Kansas (Fayetteville, Arkansas on May 23, 1959)
Listen: http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu/songinformation.aspx?ID=1397
VERSE 1
Jim Gayley rode home on a cold winter night
Jim Gayley rode home so fine
Jim Gayley rode home on a cold winter night
He taken sick an' died
VERSE 2
A maid on yonders wall
Sewing her silk so fine
And when she heard Jim Gayley was dead
She threw her silk a side
VERSE 3
She followed him up, she followed him down
She followed him to his grave
There on her bending knees
She wept, she mourned, she prayed
VERSE 4
Lift up the casket, lean back the lid
Lean back the lid so fine
That I may kiss his cold pale lips
For I know that he'll never kiss mine
VERSE 5
Now, when you see a dove
Hopping from vine to vine
He's mourning for his lover
Just as I mourn for mine