Well, I do object just a bit to that comment. Practically every story has another side to it. Clifton Clowers died just two or three years ago, well up into his 90s. He lived just about his entire life up on (yes) Wolverton Mountain, over west of here on the other side of Van Buren County.

Up until recently, I had a copy of the Van Buren County Democrat (published weekly in Clinton, Arkansas) which contained his obituary. Just a few weeks ago, however, I donated it to the Ozark Cultural Resource Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. Otherwise, I could give you the dates, etc. There was also an article in the Chimes community news (we still have those sorts of things in the local paper) telling who went to the funeral from there, and it also took great pains to tell that Mr. Clowers was a kind and generous man who was not at all as he was portrayed in the song. During his lifetime, Mr. Clowers apparently derived a great deal of enjoyment from his rather undeserved "notoriety"

The song was written by his nephew, Merle Kilgore, in 1962.

Dale Rose, a Van Buren County, Arkansas resident, and proud to say that.