Fifty years ago today, April the 8th, 1949, the local radio
station where I lived, began broadcasting details of a tragic
story about a little girl trapped in an abandoned well in
California.
I suppose that the story was carried by newspapers and radio
stations in almost every city and town in the United States
and probably in several other countries, as well.

I, like many of my childhood friends, family and local
town folks, shed many tears over the tragedy of this poor
little girl and her family and the eventual death of little
3-year old Kathy Fiscus.

The memory of this sad event was forever indelibly
etched in my memory, (It seems like only yesterday.)
I have played and sang this song each of the past 50 years,
on April the 8th, in remembrance of the death of
Little Kathy Fiscus and the sadness it brought her family.

-Gene

It was on the front page of the New York Times
on 9 and 10 April, 1949.

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THE DEATH OF LITTLE KATHY FISCUS
Words and music: Jimmie Osborne

On April the 8th, the year '49,
Death claimed a little child, so pure and so kind.
Kathy they called her, met her doom that day.
I know it was God that called her away.

Playmates with Kathy were all having fun.
The story was told, they all started to run,
And as they looked back, she wasn't there.
It's so sad to think of this tragic affair.

Just like a beast in a forest that day,
The abandoned well took Kathy away.
For over two days the well was her tomb.
Everyone kept praying they'd get her out soon.

Thousands were there from far and from near.
Workmen they struggled against sadness and fear,
But after two days their hopes grew so weak.
They called down to Kathy, but she never did speak.

After working so hard both day and night,
Digging for hours, she came into sight.
The little darlin' was dead; her life it was gone.
Now in San Marino there's a heartbroken home.

I'm sure she's an angel in God's peaceful fold,
Playing with children in a mansion of gold.
As I stand alone, humbly I bow.
I know Kathy's happy up there with God now.