Actually, I've never learned the lyrics to this song so I don't have to recall them. I just dug out The Greenbrier Boys' LP and played the track over and over until I was sure I understood the words and had it all down correctly. I did this last night.

I'm quite certain the line is "I'm afraid to tell the folks that she's my next of kin." The phrase is sung quite clearly. Rosie is evidently the sister of the narrator and their Pa is the one that must call the sheriff. They live in the same house and are in fact "next of kin."

The only line about which I have any uncertainty at all is the one I've posted as "Well she was a tellin' Ma and Pa 'bout a different one each night." I know I have the sense of the line right but I'm not absolutely certain about the words "'bout a." I have the right number of syllables but the singing is muffled (and my LP is 46 years old) so even though I played that over and over and over, I wound up thinking I had only approximated those two words.

Now whether or not those lyrics are exactly the ones Jim Fullen had written in 1957, I have no idea. You can see that the last verse is merely a slight rearrangement of a previous one. I don't know whether Fullen wrote it that way or The Greenbrier Boys just needed one more verse for their arrangement and recording. The Greenbrier Boys are my only source for the song. My efforts to find even a poor rendetion of the lyrics on the Net produced nothing.

      - Mark