I have heard Frank Proffit sing Tom Dooley --many years ago, of course-- and I seem to recall that he said he learned it from someone as an "ballet." I do recall that the song is an occasional ballad treating the murder of Laura Foster by Tom Dula in, I believe, the 1860's. The belief that Proffit wrote the song is news to me, as I seem to remember that the song was considered very old in my part of the mountains back in the '40's.