Cranes of Potter

Claire was the mayor's daughter, knees went weak when I saw her

We tussled for a summer when I walked in on her and Clyde

And so she'd often wander with every boy in Potter

Many suitors died with honour in war between the states

And Clyde was a cavalry man when he got home to him she ran

But he had eyes for Western lands and left her behind

So Claire settled down, her husband moved her out of town

They tried to lay her past to rest, hung up those evening gowns

Now Jeremiah was a logger we all knew he's off his rocker

Thought Claire to be his lover, much to her surprise

Her children loved their mother, towards their father she grew fonder

Her hair just turned blonder, beauty stood the test of time

Then word got around, that Clyde was back in town

By a way of manifest destiny he had gained himself renown

In the year seventy-five, ten years after Lincoln died

Claire kissed the kids goodnight, snuck off to meet her old friend Clyde

Now Jeremiah saw that chance, his own twisted sick romance

Denying his advances Claire was never seen alive

He hung for what he'd done, we caught him bloody with his gun

He never told us where she lay, but I know that Claire would run

We never found that girl from Potter, who'd so often wander

Till more than a century later a builder found her in the ground

Beneath the cranes of Potter, where Jeremiah shot her

There lies the mayor's daughter, two feet down

Beneath the cranes of Potter, hair no longer blonder

Beneath the cranes of Potter, in her finest evening gown