Somebody posted a request for this song. I found the lyrics on an Internet search and e-mailed it to the requester, but I can't find any reference to this song in the Digital Tradition, the UTK Song Index, at the Levy Sheet Music Site, or at the U.S. Library of Congress American Memory Collection. Can anybody give us background information and a tune?
-Joe Offer-

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THE OLD REFRAIN

I often think of home Dee-ol-ee-ay
When I am all alone and far away;
I sing an old refrain, dee-ol-ee-ay
For it recalls to me a bygone day

It takes me back again to meadows fair
Where sunlight's golden rays beam everywhere
My childhood joys again come back to me
My mother's face in fancy too I see

It was my mother taught me how to sing
And to that memory my heart will cling
I'm never sad and alone while on my way
As long as I can sing Dee-ol-ee-ay

Though years have passed and gone, dee-ol-ee-ay
And though my heart is young my head is grey.
Yet still the echoes ring, dee-ol-ee-ay
And dear old memories forever stay.

This song will bring me visions full of light
And sweetest dreams throughout the darkest night
Of all that life can give, that song is best
I'll take it with me when I go to rest

And when at last my journey here is o'er
'Twill ring more joyfully than e'er before
For up to heavens I will take my lay
The angels, too, will sing dee-ol-ee-ay

JRO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRfkjqqcyhI