Pretty Fair Widow, The (Lillie Shaw II)

DESCRIPTION: Pretty widow Lillie Shaw goes out one day but does not return. A search party fails to find her, but finally traces of blood are found, and then her body. "They searched the Preston house" and find her clothes; E.B. Preston is tried and hanged
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl)
KEYWORDS: homicide trial execution
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl 115, "The Pretty Fair Widow (or, Lillie Shaw)" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST Wa115 (Partial)
Roud #4628
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lillie Shaw" (subject)
NOTES [63 words]: Although there are two songs on this subject, and this one at least spread enough to be collected three times, no one seems to have found details on the fates of Lillie Shaw and Jim Wilcox/E. B. Preston.
Frank Proffit, who supplied the Warner-TraditionalAmericanFolkSongsFromAnneAndFrankWarnerColl ballad, claimed the murder took place in the 1880s in Mountain City, Tennessee. - RBW
File: Wa115

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