LOCATION: Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Alabama
PERIOD: 1928-1931
DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Katherine George (1910); Lamar Hooper (1907-1969)
After Katherine pulled one of her disappearing acts, Lamar followed and found her in Tuscaloosa. She’d been partying with a bunch of college kids, living life large. This was 1928, and for a couple of years, this was their life which was typical during the “Jazz Age.”
But since all good things must come to an end, so did this in October 1929, and The Depression.
Kathy and Lamar did what most young people do when trouble finds them: they went home, to Montgomery. There Lamar went to work at his father’s mill, and Katherine settled into the life as wife and mother.
LAMAR AND KATHERINE FALL IN LOVE
(F. D. Leone, Jr.)
Lamar finally found Katherine;
On a barge, partyin’
Been goin’ for a couple of weeks;
It was nineteen and twenty eight;
Th’ height of the Jazz Age;
They hardly stop’d to eat or sleep.
Ain’ the way it’s spose to happen, but it did;
They fell in love.
Hung ‘roun Tuscaloosa awhile
Livin’ large, goin’ wild;
Drinkin’ too much, makin’ new friends.
Katherine led and Lamar tagged along,
Out every night dusk to dawn;
Burning their candle at both ends.
They were young, just a coupla kids;
When they fell in love.
You don’t choose,
The one who’ll break your heart;
All you can do,
Is play a little part.
Tha’s why they call it fallin’ when it does;
You’re in love.
Right about then the Depression hit,
These two kids hit the skids;
So they went back home to Magomry.
Lamar got a job at his daddy’s mill,
They lived in a little house on a hill;
Settled down and started a family.
Just the way it’s spose to happen, and it did;
They’re in love.
Lamar made a little bootleg shine,
But didn’t drink at all this time;
Katherine was known for her fig preserves.
She called him Pop, he called her Mother;
Had one child after another,
After three Kath still had her curves.
They were young, but no longer kids;
And they were in love.
You don’t choose,
The one who’ll break your heart;
All you can do,
Is play a little part.
Tha’s why they call it fallin’ when it does;
You’re in love.
© 2025 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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