<emph>Little Mary Phagan:</emph> Electronic Edition. Songwriter Performed by Rosa Lee Carson Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title. Text transcribed by Monique Prince Text encoded by Elizabeth S. Wright First edition, 2003 ca. 7K Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003.

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 Little Mary Phagan Songwriter: Performer: Rosa Lee Carson 1 p. Recording Label Record Date Call number 78-15479 General Collection/Sound Recordings (#30001), (Southern Folklife Collection, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.

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These song lyrics are transcribed from a recording from the Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These lyrics accompany a digital audio file.

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 Library of Congress Subject Headings English Ballads, English -- Texts. Phagan, Mary, d. 1913 -- Songs and music. 2004-12-08, Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition. 2003-09-09, Elizabeth S. Wright, finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing. 2003-08-21, Elizabeth S. Wright finished TEI/SGML encoding 2003-07-17, Monique Prince finished scanning the text. Little Mary Phagan Little Mary Phagan, she went to town one day She went to the pencil fact'ry, to get her little pay She left her home at eleven, when she kissed her mother good-bye Not one time did the po' child think, she was goin' right to die Leo Frank met her, with a blues we hardly know He smiled and said, “Lil' Mary, now you go home no mo'” He sneaked along behind her, 'til she reached the little room He laughed and said, “Lil' Mary, you met your fatal doom.” She fell upon her knees, to Leo Frank she pled Because she was virtuous, he hit her across the head The tears rolled down her rosy cheeks, the blood flowed down her back She remembered tellin' her mother what time she would be back He killed lil' Mary Phagan, was on one holiday Then called for ol' Jim Conley to take her body away He took her to the basement, bound hand and feet Down in the basement, lil' Mary lay asleep Newt Lee was the watchman, when he went to wind the key Down in the basement, lil' Mary he could see He called for the officers, their names I do not know They came to the pencil factr'y, saying, “Newt Lee, you must go.” They took him to the jailhouse, locked him in a cell The poor ol' innocent nigger, knew nothin' for to tell I have a notion in my head, when Frank comes to die He took his damnation in the courthouse in the sky The astonished asked the question, the angels they do say Why he kill lil' Mary, upon one holiday? Come all of you good people, wherever you may be, Supposin' little Mary belonged to you or me? Her mother sets a-weepin' She weeps and mourns all day She prays to meet her baby In a better world some day Judge passed the sentence You bet he passed it well Sent Leo Frank to — —