No threadjack intended, but the name of a dear friend comes up in a curious thread... I'm going to be playing music in a couple of nights with Dave Fredrickson, and will ask him about this song, and where he learned it.

Dave's a singer of Western songs, from the Central Valley of California. His website is www.davefredrickson.net. He's around the same age as Guest Debbie's mother, and learned much of his material from the radio in the thirties and forties. Who knows... he may even have heard a recording of Jean Sackett and the Texarcana Ramblers.
Here's the song on his 1962 Folkways album:

BONNIE BLUE EYES

Learned from the Randolph Collection (IV, 209-10) with verses added from "My Last Gold Dollar" (IV, 114.)

Good-bye little bonnie blue eyes
Good-bye little bonnie blue eyes
I'll see you again but God knows when
Good-bye little bonnie blue eyes.

I'm leavin' on the railroad train
I'm leavin' on the railroad train
Oh I love you God knows I do
But I'm leavin' on the railroad train.

I'm goin' out west this fall
I'm goin' out west this fall
I'm goin' out west I'll leave the one that I love best,
Little bonnie don't ya weep for me.

I'll sail on the ocean blue
I'll sail on the ocean blue
On the ocean blue I'll think about you
But I'll sail on the ocean blue.

Good-bye little bonnie blue eyes
Good-bye little bonnie blue eyes
I'll see you again but God knows when
Good-bye little bonnie blue eyes.

I must travel on down the line
I must travel on down the line
I love you my dear and I want you near
But I must travel on down the line.

Put your hand in mine
Just put your little hand in mine
If you love me like I love you
Just put your little hand in mine.

My last gold dollar is gone
My last gold dollar is gone
My board bill's due and my whiskey bill is too
But my last gold dollar is gone.

Back to first verse.