Lyrics:
On one morning bright and clear
My old homestead I drew near,
It's a village down in sunny Tennessee,;
I was speeding on a train
That would carry me back again
To that girl I loved in sunny Tennessee.
chorus:
You could hear those darkies singing
As she bid farewell to me,
Far across the fields of cotton
My old homestead I could see;
But as the moon rose in the glory,
There I told the saddest story
To that girl I loved in sunny Tennessee.
It has been but quite a few years
Since I kissed away her tears,
As I left her at my dear old mother's side;
And each day we've been apart
She's grown nearer to my heart,
As the night I asked of her to be my bride.
As the train run in at last,
Those familiar scenes I passed,
When I kissed my mother at the station door;
When the crowd gathered round,
Tears on every face I found,
But I missed the one who I'd been waiting for.
As I whispered “Mother dear,
Where is Mary?” “She's not here.”
All the world seems lonely, sadness came to me;
As she pointed to a spot
In the little churchyard lot
Where my sweetheart sleeps in sunny Tennessee.
