It was the third of June
Another sleepy dusty Delta day
I was out chopping cotton
And my brother was baling hay

And at dinner time we stopped and 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 morning from Choctaw Ridge
Today, Billy Joe McAllister
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 a shame about Billy Joe
Anyhow

Seems like nothing ever comes to no good
Up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe McAllister's
Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And brother said he recollected
When he and Tom and Billie Joe
Had put a frog down my back
At the Carroll County picture show

And wasn't I talking 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
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 cooking 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 something
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 wanna do much of anything

And me, I spend a lot of time picking flowers
Up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water
Off the Tallahatchie Bridge