Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)

Subject: Lyr Add: LEGACY OF WOMEN (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,Lynn T
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 08:35 AM

When I lived in Indiana ten years ago, I learned a lovely song at a Getaway there about how you could always tell where a woman had lived, because even though "Her old man's work had all gone down/ To ashes and red clay" the flowers she had planted still bloomed and grew in the hills. Does anybody out there know the lyrics, and/or who wrote it? I remember it starts:

Georgeann Crabtree owned our place, 50 years ago
A widow woman most her life, as folks around here know
Her old man, he was bad to drink, it was a sorry sight
He fell off his horse in Dox's Pond and drownded there one night.

Chorus:
See all them bushes, sprung up with wild rose vines
With tangled stands of flowering quince their thorny tendrils twine
Hens and chickens, fresh and green, and banks of daffodils
The legacy of women who settled in these hills.

Many thanks from a music-and-garden lover...

Lynn

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 15-Aug-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: The Shambles
Date: 26 Oct 00 - 03:03 AM

Refesh to prevent the thread from falling off the bottom of the world unanswered.

Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 01:53 AM

Lynn, I would love to know this song as well, its beautiful! I'm still a bit choked after reading just what you remember, I hope someone can help find the rest of the lyrics

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 10:28 AM

The song was composed by Anne McPhee (not sure of spelling). I used to hear her sing it regularly at the Fraley Festival (near Ashland KY.). I've looked but she seems to have no web presence. I think I have one of her tapes. I'll check to see if the song is on it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 12:17 PM

Well there is Catherine-Anne MacPhee, but she's Scottish and sings Gaelic folk songs so I guess it isn't her.

Subject: Lyr Add: LEGACY OF WOMEN (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,Lynn
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 02:14 PM

The tune has been running through my head these past few days (I can halfway hear the delicate banjo accompaniment), and another verse has swum up, though I'm still missing the second part to that first verse:

Then Georgeanne's boy Lawrence lived on the place a spell
They say that he ran moonshine, and it took his life as well
He went up to Cincinnati, playing his guitar
Stepped out on the freeway and got run down by a car.

Now what his woman's name was, I never heard them say
The cabin where they used to live has rotted clean away
But I know that she was there, for where the front door used to swing
A plant called "live forever" comes up there every spring.

Chorus: See all them bushes, sprung up with wild rose vines
In tangled stands of flowering quince their thorny tendrils twine
Desert yucca in the woods and banks of daffodils
A legacy of women who settled in these hills.

Does that help any?
Lynn

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 15-Aug-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 09:25 AM

Found my tape, Gentle Annie. The correct spelling is Anne MacFie. Unfortunately "Legacy of Women" is not on that tape. However, there is an address: P. O. Box 271, Stanton KY 40380. Anne is mentioned on several websites but she seems to have none of her own.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Aug 02 - 06:41 PM

According to http://wizard.district125.k12.il.us/faculty/lbrown/GeorgeAnn.html, George Ann Howell/Crabtree was a real person. The song is mentioned, but the author's name is spelled there "Anne McFie." I think this is an error.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 18 Aug 02 - 04:06 PM

Annie MacFie did write this lovely song. Can't lay my hand just now on the recording, but emailed Annie and I do hope she'll come in as a Guest (or join Mudcat?) and help you with the song. It's well worth it waiting for! Jean

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: GUEST,kitty
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 05:54 PM

I know this song my family has been singing it for years. One of my Aunts had seen Annie McFie at a country sing along and got her tape

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: GUEST,kitty
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 05:59 PM

if you found out where I can get a copy of the tape I would love to own it. The rest of the song goes

Not so very long ago, just before she died
I heard that Betty Grubbs had called Ruth Perry to her side
she said dig those bulbs I planted up
divide and pass em round
So my flowers will be bloomin after I am in the ground

Ruth's voice was still about to break with grief when she said
"Ann if you'd like to have some tulips and some irises you can.
well I'm gonna plant em round my house so that after I'm long gone
the flowers Betty loved and mine and Georgannes will live on.

(course)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 03:57 PM

just to clarify, it was another Kitty, not me who posted the last 2 messages, so if anyone has more info about the song, please post to this thread..

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: GUEST,Nolan
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 04:56 PM

I am trying to track the original lyrics to this song for my grandmother's funeral this weekend. Does anyone have a number for Ms. McFie?

Thank you

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: GUEST,Kitty
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 10:56 PM

We have spoken with Ann she has emailed the correct words to us
if you would like a copy please let me know an email address and I will be happy to forward the lyrics as for the recording no one seems to have a copy so if any one out there still does please let us know I would still like a copy.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Jul 04 - 12:23 AM

Why not post the lyrics here?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,doveroo
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 06:31 PM

not sure if you got all the lryics my aunt and now my two cousins sing this to me when we get together,my cousins i think know all i will getwith with them soon have them look this up ajnd send u a mess.great song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,Lynn T
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 08:57 PM

Well isn't it wonderful how good songs come back around? I would still love to get a copy of the song and/or its lyrics, Kitty -- you can contact me at ltitle2003 at yahoo dot com.

Many thanks!

Lynn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)
From: michaelr
Date: 29 Jun 11 - 09:25 PM

That was a bit selfish of Kitty, no? She got the lyrics, and sod the rest of us...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,LynnT
Date: 09 May 12 - 05:33 PM

Better late than never -- I realized I left out the second half of the first verse:

Georgeann carried on alone for 20 odd years more,
Foundation stones are scattered where her old house stood before
Her old man's work has all gone down to ashes and red clay,
But what old Georgeann left behind survives there to this day.

Lynn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,phyllis
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 09:58 PM

I have a copy of this song on cassette tape,Georganne is my husbands grandmother and his dad and aunts are in the song,Anne Mcfie now lives on the old homeplace

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,LYRIC ADD ................ 999
Date: 13 Sep 12 - 02:49 PM

"A Legacy of Women"

Georgeann Crabtree owned our place, 50 years ago
A widow woman most her life, as folks around here know
Her old man, he was bad to drink, it was a sorry sight
He fell off his horse in Dox's Pond and drownded there one night.

Chorus:
See all them bushes, sprung up with wild rose vines
With tangled stands of flowering quince their thorny tendrils twine
Hens and chickens, fresh and green, and banks of daffodils
The legacy of women who settled in these hills.

Then Georgeanne's boy Lawrence lived on the place a spell
They say that he ran moonshine, and it took his life as well
He went up to Cincinnati, playing his guitar
Stepped out on the freeway and got run down by a car.

Now what his woman's name was, I never heard them say
The cabin where they used to live has rotted clean away
But I know that she was there, for where the front door used to swing
A plant called "live forever" comes up there every spring.

Chorus: See all them bushes, sprung up with wild rose vines
In tangled stands of flowering quince their thorny tendrils twine
Desert yucca in the woods and banks of daffodils
A legacy of women who settled in these hills.

Not so very long ago, just before she died
I heard that Betty Grubbs had called Ruth Perry to her side
she said dig those bulbs I planted up
divide and pass em round
So my flowers will be bloomin after I am in the ground

Ruth's voice was still about to break with grief when she said
"Ann if you'd like to have some tulips and some irises you can.
well I'm gonna plant em round my house so that after I'm long gone
the flowers Betty loved and mine and Georgannes will live on.


The above lyric which I think is complete is from

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/alt.appalachian/63A6VZaZTUc

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Legacy of Women (Anne MacFie)
From: GUEST,phyllis crabtree
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 09:22 PM

this song is about my husbands grandmother and lawrence is his dad.i would love to have this song.i know anne mcfie lives on the old family property at stanton ky please if you have a copy email me at [e-mail]