Re-ragging in red for a funeral IMO from repeated references signifies affirmation of life in the presence of death. It is a flagrant refusal to wear black and thus signify acquiescence. The women were saying Brady / Ella Speed / Alice B., etc, lived on in the glory of their presence, death couldn't take them away.

My assumption, based on Paul Clayton's version of "Been On The Job Too Long," is that he learned it from a copy of the Wilmer Watts record he found while collecting songs in Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, and rewrote it just enough to gain copyright on his recording. He collected 78s for the wind-up phonograph he kept in the cabin he owned in the foothills outside Charlottesville, VA.