My dad (Lon Howe) and sister (Pearl)used to perform this song in the early 1900's around Clinton Indiana. Here's the words that I have hand written by my late sister:

SUNBONNET MOTHER (G)

There's a faded old sunbonnet on a peg behind the door.
It's the one my sainted mother used to wear,
Then one day she hung it up and never took it down no more.
Since that day we've left it hanging there.

I seem to see her working round the old home place
When times were hard and things were in despair
She'd pull that old sunbonnet down low upon her face
To hide the worry that was written there.

Hard luck, hard times, and worry is all my mother had
Until that day she laid her burdens down.
Her tired old hands lay folded, her work on earth was through.
She's exchanged her old sunbonnet for a crown

God gives sun-bonnet mothers a special kind of love
To help them with the burdens they must bear
I hope he has a special place prepared for them above
They ought to get the best of it somewhere

Oh, God be good to mother, wherever she may be.
Grant her rest and comfort over there
And keep her the same sweet smiling angel
that she always seemed to be
In that old sunbonnet she used to wear.

Don Stover