KIM MOBERG

Lyrics

A rainy Ozark night a baby girl is born
Dent County 1894
Josephine Melinda gave a muffled cry
First in a lifetime of countless more

Hamp was tall and lean with eyes as black as coal
And a dark spot upon his soul
Sweet Josie took his name at seventeen years old
His four children she soon bore

He shot a man for stealing from his water well
Or so his story goes
Left him there to die on that dusty bowl
The judge said “guilty” and the cell door closed

So Josie worked the railroad while he did his time
Cookin’ up and down that KT Line
She heard that Hamp was free and had a family
And a wife ‘cross the Kansas state line

The orphan’s home the only way to save her kids
Their love she’d not forsake
She kissed them all, wiped a tear and in their ear
Said “I’ll be back, whatever it takes”

She stood before the preacher for a second time
With Mr. Coffey in ’25
No wedding gown, a union for to save their lives
She’d be a widow in twenty years time

Oh Josephine
Sweet Josephine
I miss your spit firin’ smile

The third time was to Russ when she was fifty five
She loved that man until the day she died
Five score and twenty three she smiles at me
Lookin’ down from our crooked blood line

Oh Josephine
Sweet Josephine
I miss your spit firin’ smile
Josephine
Jospehine
Won’t you sit for, sit for awhile