No One Can Keep A Good Woman Down (Honoring Marian Sullivan Schwarz)

Unpublished

Stay close to God
Be selective in choosing your friends
Be someone you can depend on
Be honest, a good life you’ll live

Mother taught school and so did I
Six sisters and I toiled in the field
Without a brother we grew to be strong
In these beautiful spring-fed driftless hills
Where I’m living still

Cashton Town
Cashton Town
No one can keep a good woman down
Cashton Town

In a one-room school house
Where my father like I learned to read
Christmas time everybody turned out
To hear the children sing
Teacher, nurse, a mother, a wife
That’s all a woman could be
No right to vote. No right to own.
Everything depended on the man you married
Women today have more opportunities

Cashton Town
Cashton Town
No one can keep a good woman down
Cashton Town

Got my Master’s Degree
While milking cows with four children in the barn
My husband, not too thrilled with me
Yet the money I earned saved the family farm
When the sparks flew, we had to get out
With a teacher’s wage I paid the bills
Together we rebuilt the house
Made of oak and it’s standing still
On this organic farm in these driftless hills

Cashton Town
Cashton Town
No one can keep a good woman down
Cashton Town

From hauling water, wood, and corn cobs
To the times we are living today
In a world that moves so fast
At one hundred and four years of age
Everything changes, yet still remains
Make good use of your years in school
You are building your future today
Always do the best you can do
Your future depends on you

Cashton Town
Cashton Town
No one can keep a good woman down
Cashton Town
Living on driftless ground
Cashton Town
No one can keep a good woman down
Cashton Town
Living on driftless ground
Cashton Town
No one can keep a good woman down

Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long 2017 / BMI

*Lyrics drawn from interview with Mrs. Marion Sullivan Schwarz. Facilitated by her great grandson Aiden Cook, under the servant leadership of teacher Tara Schmitz. Mrs. Sullivan was born October 18th, 1913 and passed away on January 18, 2018. No One Can Keep A Good Woman Down was performed for Mrs. Marion Sullivan Schwarz on her 104th birthday in the Cashton Community Center.

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