Anona
Music and Lyric: Vivian Grey (Pseudonym for Mabel McKinley) (1903)
„In the western state of Arizona,
Lived an Indian maid;
She was called the beautiful Anona so ’tis said.
Graceful as a fawn was she,
Just as sweet as she could be,
Eyes so bright, dark as night,
Had this pretty little Arizona Indian maiden.
All the chiefs who knew her,
Came to woo her,
For her pined
To merry she declined,
At last she changed her mind,
But ‘twas not a chief so grand, who won her heart and hand,
But a warrior bold, who wooed her with a song:
Refrain: My sweet Anona, in Arizona,
There is no other maid I’serenade;
By campfires gleaming, of you I’m dreaming,
Anona, my sweet Indian maid.
When her father heard that his Anona,
Loved this youthful brave;
Straight away he said he would disown her, things looked grave.
She must marry „heap big chief“,
Sweet Anona hid her grief,
Ran away, so they say,
And got married to the man she lovend with out delaying.
Then her father sought her,
Never caught her, till one day,
When two years passed away,
They both came back to stay,
Then the chief declared a truth,
When they named their young papoose,
After him and to hie grandchild he would sing:
Refrain: My sweet Anona, in Arizona, …"
(aus: Klavierausgabe mit Gesang: Anona. Vocal by Vivian Grey (Miss Mabel McKinley), Leo Feist, New York, 1903)