Here is the song:

THE DEATH OF CARL SHELTON
(as sung by Fred Henson in 1948)

Near a little country schoolhouse in the county known as Blaine Wayne,
Was down in Pine Creek bottom Pond Creek Bottoms one day a man was slain,
He was riding on the highway to see about some grain,
When they shot him from an ambush -- Carl Shelton was his name.

Now little did he know that morn he started out,
These hoodlums would be waiting there along this murder route,
He had no one to warn him and he feared no rude man's harm,
As he drove his jeep that morning to work down on the farm.

----He left his dear old mother in sorrow there alone,
----Living down near Marion in her little country home,
----May the angels hover over her for she hasn't long to stay,
----In hopes she'll meet her darling in a better world some day.

At the county seat of Fairfield, they could not find the bill,
But we all know that it's not right our fellow man to kill,
They even shot him when he fell and left him there to die,
Some day this mystery will be solved in the courthouse in the sky.

He had four loyal brothers, two sisters and a wife,
To mourn his sad departure the day they took his life,
In Maple Hill they laid him so peacefully there at rest,
But his presence, it still lingers, with the ones that knew him best.

---He left his dear old mother in sorrow there alone,
---Living down near Marion in her little country home,
---May the angels hover over her--for she hasn't long to stay,
---And hopes she'll meet her darling in a better world some day.

(A MILLION THANKS to Ruthie Shelton!!! May her uncle Carl, her dad, Little Carl, and all the rest from those sad hard times Rest In Peace...)

Click to play