The Myths and Misinformation Surrounding the Song 'Maggie'?

It sounds like a man in the autumn of his life, recalling, perhaps, his courtship many decades earlier. In fact, George Washington Johnson was just 24.

But the words were indeed addressed to his wife-to-be, Margaret (Maggie) Clark, three years his junior.
Maggie was a student in Glanbrook, near the town of Mount Hope, when Johnson came there as a teacher at the age of 20.

Tall, handsome, with dark curly hair and a handlebar moustache, the teenage girls fell for him, but he only had eyes for Maggie. 

And she for him.
They were married in 1864.

But George and Maggie didn't get to share their memories.

They didn't become "aged and grey" together, as the song says.

As the grave marker in White Church cemetery in Mount Hope notes, she died on May 12, 1865, just seven months after she and George Johnson married.

Uploaded on April 6th on
Merle Haggard's birthday?-) 

I wrote a post yesterday on Merle Haggard's birthday about Troy Cassar-Daley and me reading his book over the Easter weekend, which featured a bit of a ramble by me in that post about the song 'Maggie' -

I Wish I Was A Train ... But Not on the Day That Jesus Died?

When You and I Were Young, Maggie

Troy writes in his book 'Things That I Carry Around' about how 'Maggie' was the first song he ever had to sing in front of a live audience when he was a young boy.

I always thought 'Maggie' was a sweet Irish ballad, until I was doing some research yesterday for my post I was writing about reading Troy's book when reading about the song 'Maggie' at Wikipedia.

But I found out the song was actually a Canadian story inspired by the short life of Margret Clark and credited to James Austin Butterfield for taking the poem Maggie's husband had written and turning it into a song inspired by the poem.

I almost went to see a 'Foster and Allen' concert in 2016 at the Hobart casino, because of how much I liked hearing them sing that song on my parent's radio when I was living at home.

The APIA Tour: Rules Are Made to Be Broken... or, What Would Jesus Do?-)

I'll bet that F&A song above called 'A Deck of Cards' was played in their Hobart Casino gig?-) 

Misinformation about James Austin Butterfield
 on the same page

But Wikipedia can be a rather unreliable source of information sometimes, as I found out when I was trying to find out just when James Austin Butterfield was born and died.

An example of Wikipedia misinformation?

I thought that I was on to some personal synchromysticism yesterday when I saw that Butterfield died on my father's birthday of April 8th, but on the same Wikipedia page it also states that Butterfield died on July 6th? 

And it also states that Butterfield was born on Troy's birthday of May 18th, while at the same time stating that Butterfield was born on May 2nd?  

But then I found a 'Find A Grave' site that gave another two totally different dates for JAB's birth and death.
I guess you learn something new everyday ... that may or may not be true?-)  

I gave my mother Troy's book to read yesterday, as she is a bit of a 4KQ Radio listener, and she told me that she thought they mentioned it being Laurel's (Troy's wife) birthday yesterday?

I thought wouldn't that be a coincidence if that were true, because April 6th was the day Troy's hero Merle Haggard was born and passed away on?

But I couldn't find anywhere on the internet where Laurel's birth-date is mentioned, so probably just more misinformation from my mother's faulty hearing and not listening properly?

WHAT'S NEW October 7, 2016

Well, happy birthday Laurel for whenever it is this year:-)

Chris Mackey might find it interesting that Laurel was born in 1966 and married Troy in 1996 though?-)

Chris Mackey: The Positive Psychology of Synchronicity?