LOCATION: East Texas; Shreveport, Louisiana
PERIOD: 1815-1889
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Earland McLemore (1816-ca. 1861); Leeland McLemore (1816-1889); Owen McLemore (1791-1868); Doak Walker (1820-1905).
Earland McLemore (1816-1864) and Leeland McLemore (1816-1889) were twins, tow of seven sons of Owen McLemore (1791-1868) and Anabel March (1796-1832) who died in childbirth with the youngest son at age 36.
Earl was one minute older than Lee and lorded this over his very slightly younger brother. This was the start of intense jealousy on the part of Lee, who as the song begins, fantasizes about killing his twin brother.
Although they look identical, it was not hard to tell them apart since their personalities were opposite: Earl out-going, charismatic, and with many friends; Lee moody, stand-offish, and a loner.
While Earl mixed well with other men, he didn’t always display good judgment being too quick to trust someone and become the best of friends and even going into business with a man he hardly knew. This is what happened when Doak Walker (1820-1905) came to Texas to collect a string of ponies to sell to the Confederate army in 1861.
While Earl joined up with Walker with no hesitation, Lee was skeptical and watched from the sidelines, a position he was comfortable taking since it had been his habit from the time he was a small boy. Some how, at some point, the partnership went sour, and it was assumed that Doak Walker killed Earl McLemore, although there was no actual proof. Earl’s body was not found until near the end of the war in 1864.
In 1889, his approaching last days, Lee told the story, if he is to be believed, how Doak Walker murdered his brother. Lee, who had fantasized about that very thing since he was a young boy, admitted to nothing, leaving judgment in the hands of a Higher Authority.
DIRTY DOG WORLD
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
Three shots pierce a gray winter morn;
The McLemore twins hunting at dawn;
Snow geese on the river, a cold steady rain.
One minute older, Earl made much of it;
All his life, Lee put up with that shit;
Raised his barrel at Earl’s head then dropped his aim.
Owen McLemore had seven living sons;
All except the youngest one;
They lost him when he was two years old.
His mama Anabel died in childbirth;
Mother and son buried in Tennessee dirt;
Owen took the rest to Texas and a bitter household.
It’s a dirty dog world,
Round a trigger a finger curls.
We are only as free,
As the secrets we keep.
The western sky black with a thunderhead;
Chink of bridle, drum of hoof tread;
Rain by nightfall, if the desert don’t drink it up.
Lee and Earl joined up after the Alamo;
To rip Texas from the grasp of Mexico;
Like the other young and strong Texas patriots.
Earl moved easy among the other men;
Joking and jostling, everyone his friend;
Lee kept to himself, separate from the rest.
Staring at Earl’s back Lee fantasized;
To remove Earl from his life;
A cold rage burned deep in his dark breast.
It’s a dirty dog world,
Round a trigger a finger curls.
We are only as free,
As the secrets we keep.
Doak Walker came with horses from Arkansas;
Sell ’em to the Feds, against the law;
This was 1861, April or May.
Doak and Earl hit it off when they met;
Lee didn’ trust Walker far as he could spit;
But Earl went on and threw in with Doak Walker anyway.
They never found Earl’s body ’til ’64;
A Tennessee cornfield at the end of the war;
Three .44 slugs blackened Earl’s bloody chest.
Lee swore to it in 1889;
To a Shreveport judge, just before he died;
“Doak Walker done it,” if you believe him, well, that’s what Lee said.
It’s a dirty dog world,
Round a trigger a finger curls.
We are only as free,
As the secrets we keep.
© 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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