Back issues of Broadside have been online for a while now (http://broadsidemagazine.com/ click on Backfile & Indexes). The story as Ed Rush told it above on 5 October 2004 differs a bit from the story as he told it in Broadside 41. There, he wrote, "After getting the words, rather awkwardly phrased, from a Cal co-ed of our acquaintance, we [George Cromarty and Ed Rush] put them into meter, set them to an innocuous (?) melody and surrounded them with dialogue...."

Rush goes on to cite the original, "I don't care if it rains or freezes/Leaning on the arms of Jesus..." which was the theme of a "radio show from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the 1940s. On hearing this, some wag changed the words and 20 years later they ended up in my hands...."

It seems to me that in 1964 Ed Rush was disclaiming any credit for the lyrics of PJ.