LOCATION: Montgomery County, Alabama; Tuscaloosa.
PERIOD: 1928-1931
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Lamar Hooper (1907-1969); Katherine George (1910-1994)
Lamar Hooper grew up on a farm in Montgomery County Alabama, but was a restless teenager whop left home at 15 and went to the “big city” of Montgomery. After a few years he met a young lady, Katherine George, and they began dating. But Katherine was also restless, and she would often take off for parts unknown.
This song is about one of her escapades in Tuscaloosa, where life was a bit more exciting, what with the college there and plenty of young folk, who were living the life in the Jazz Age.
Lamar would dutifully trail after Katherine.
Lamar and Katherine hung around Tuscaloosa, where their romance blossomed and they fell deeply in love. Eventually they would would return to Montgomery and their more conventional lifestyle. These little adventures would cease once the Depression hit, when merely surviving took all their energies and attention.
They married in 1931, and had three children, the oldest, Leon Hooper (1933-1975) was the father of Levi Hooper (1973) (more of whom can be learned about in several other Highway 80 songs).
By the time Leon was born Lamar and Katherine had relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, in the constant pursuit of employment and a better life.
TUSCALOOSA
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
8th of May,
Katherine fled,
Tuscaloosa.
I coulda stayed,
Hit the road instead;
Tuscaloosa.
A place, a time,
The scene of a crime;
It all remains,
In my head;
Tuscaloosa.
Keep my pride
Hidden away;
Thought I knew her.
Dawn sky;
Iron grey,
Tuscaloosa.
I wonder if Katherine was,
Ever, really, in love?
Overnight,
Frost on the clay;
Tuscaloosa.
Downhill;
A road alone,
Don’ wanna lose her.
Whippoorwill’s
Lonesome song;
Tuscaloosa.
Sun’s going down,
Another dirt road town.
I’ll drive until,
She’s too far gone;
Tuscaloosa.
White line,
Leads to a door;
Straight to her.
City sign,
Ten miles more;
Tuscaloosa.
An ashtray was left,
Full of lipstick tipped cigarettes;
In our two-lane
Motel court;
Tuscaloosa.
© 2023 Frank David Leone, Jr./Highway 80 Music (ASCAP). The songs and stories on the Highway 80 Stories website are works of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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