Frank Warner

We are fortunate that Frank Prophet preserved the song through Appalachian oral tradition after he heard it from his aunt, Nancy Prather.

Prophet's version was learned by Frank Warner.

Frank Warner's version was then learned in 1958 by the Kingston Trio, who had a number one hit on the Billboard charts.

It was nearly 30 years after the first known recorded version in 1929 by G.B. Grayson and Henry Witter.

I mention that version because Grayson's uncle, the Union officer James Grayson, aided in the capture of then-fugitive Tom Dooley, spelled D-U-L-A, the alleged killer in our first tale.

I don't know.

Recently, a ph- a banjo collector in New York who, who bought this book and has been reading it, who, who was the director of Philadelphia Folk Festival, said, "What make banjo is Thaddeus Willingham playing?" 'Cause there's, there's a picture of him in the book.

And I said, "I don't know.

You're, you're the collector.

You find out." Uh, so I can't tell you who made it, but it's clearly store-bought.

And you know, it had a lot of brackets on it, and it was considered sort of a, a sign of, uh, prestige, the more brackets it had.

And Maybell, uh, grew up in that, in the same community there at Beech Mountain and, uh, North Carolina.

And, uh, this is where Frank Proffitt was from.