Michael Martin Murphey - Belle Starr

As she rode into Dallas on a dashing black stallion
A silver-trimmed bridle caught the rays of the sun
She had a plume in the band of her spotless white Stetson
A long velvet gown and two matching six-guns

Sometimes she wore fringe on her bright-beaded buckskins
Raised hell with her pistols and smoked a cigar
She had a rattlesnake necklace and she loved desperados
This petticoat wildcat, the outlaw Belle Starr

Born Myra Belle Shirley in southwest Missouri
She spoke Greek and Latin and Hebrew quite well
She's fierce as a wildcat, deadly aim with a pistol
She played the piano like a sweet Southern Belle

Her brother rode under the black flag in Kansas
He was killed with Quantrill in the great Civil War
She was only sixteen when she bought twin revolvers
And began her career as the outlaw Belle Starr

And she loved many men who were wild, rough, and fearless
Danced with Cole Younger, and she fancied Frank James
She married Jim Reed, a dashing young outlaw
Many a lawman soon cursed her name

Jim rode with Tom Starr, the Cherokee outlaw
Robbin' and rustlin', they were wolves of the world
While he was in hidin', Belle gave him two children
Called her son Edward, and her precious girl Pearl

Soon Jim was killed over in Paris, Texas
By a bold bounty hunter with a deputy star
So she ran to the Younger clan way up in Kansas
Soon became known as the outlaw Belle Starr

Belle took to a hideout over in Oklahoma
And lived with the Starr clan over in Younger's Bend
She soon fell in love there with Sam Starr, the badman
Their home was a haven to many bad men

She robs, smuggled whiskey, and she sold it to indians
Rode a big horse named Venus, as black as coal tar
She was caught at a horse-stealin' by Judge Isaac Parker
He sent her to prison, this outlaw Belle Starr

She taught French there to the children of Detroit's prison warden
But she was soon was released back to ole Younger's Bend
But she did not repent, and she soon told reporters
She counted brave, gallant outlaws as her friends

One night she was playing the lively pump organ
At a local dance hall that served as a bar
When the news came that Sam had been killed by a policeman
"Bring him in, lay him out!", said the outlaw Bill Starr

Not long she was widowed when she married Jim July
He's well-educated and a horse thief to boot
He left her alone when he went out a-ramblin'
He reckoned her safe because she knew how to shoot

One day when her daughter Pearl went out a-ridin'
She saw Belle's horse galloping and she'd not gone far
When she found Belle face down, fatally wounded
A shotgun ambush killed the outlaw Belle Starr

The Cherokees came to the Bandit Queen's funeral
They dropped crumbs of cornbread in the casket and cried
And the New York Times front page soon noted her passing
She was buried in riding clothes, a gun by her side

Soon Pearl went to walkin' the dark streets of Fort Smith
As the Bandit Queen's daughter, she was known near and far
But she lived in the shadow of her mother forever
Haunted forever by the outlaw Belle Starr