It was the third of June

Another sleepy, dusty Delta day

I was out choppin' cotton

And my brother was balin' hay

And at dinner time we stopped

And we walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered out the back door

"Y'all, remember to wipe your feet"

And then she said

"I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today, Billy Joe MacAllister's

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And Papa said to Mama

As he passed around the black-eyed peas

"Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense

Pass the biscuits, please

There's five more acres in the lower forty

I've got to plow"

And mama said

It was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow

Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good

Up on Choctaw Ridge

And now Billy Joe MacAllister's

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And brother said he recollected

When he and Tom and Billie Joe

Put a frog down my back

At the Carroll County picture show

And wasn't I talkin' to him

After church last Sunday night?

"I'll have another piece of apple pie

You know, it don't seem right

I saw him at the sawmill yesterday

Up on Choctaw Ridge

And now you tell me Billie Joe's

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

And mama said to me

"Child, what's happened to your appetite?

I've been cookin' all morning

And you haven't touched a single bite

That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor

Dropped by today

Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday

Oh, by the way

He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you

Up on Choctaw Ridge

And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin'

Off the Tallahatchie Bridge"

A year has come and gone

Since we heard the news 'bout Billy Joe

And brother married Becky Thompson

They bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus going 'round

Papa caught it, and he died last spring

And now Mama doesn't seem to want

To do much of anything

And me, I spend a lot of time

Pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the muddy water

Off the Tallahatchie Bridge