Ohio State Song--Beautiful Ohio

Mom, her business partner and friend Dottie and I drove to Rising Sun and then Lawrenceburg, Indiana to do a little gambling on the "boats". Due to gaming laws, both casinos are located on the Ohio River which has areas of heavy industry as well as still-wild beauty. I mentioned how pretty the drive must be in the fall as the area is heavily treed with low hills and Mom and Dottie both agreed but said they preferred the spring as the red buds and dogwoods were gorgeous at that time. Even though the skies were leaden with snow and the river steel-gray and icy with cold, I could envision how the countryside would look when the Ohio Valley emerged from its winter doldrums.

One of the songs we often sang in choir in junior high was "Beautiful Ohio", which lent itself to nice harmony. I heard it played on mandolins at a campground in Florida two years after we started full-timing and while it made me homesick, the song translated well to that particular instrument.

So I thought I'd post the lyrics this morning, only to find that once again, politicians can't leave well enough alone. They commercialized the lyrics. Sigh.

The Ohio State Song
Beautiful Ohio

words by Ballard MacDonald and music by Mary Earl
special lyrics by Wilbert B. McBride

I sailed away;
Wandered afar;
Crossed the mighty restless sea;
Looked for where I ought to be.
Cities so grand, mountains above,
Led to this land I love.

CHORUS:
Beautiful Ohio, where the golden grain
Dwarf the lovely flowers in the summer rain.
Cities rising high, silhouette the sky.
Freedom is supreme in this majestic land;
Mighty factories seem to hum in tune, so grand.
Beautiful Ohio, thy wonders are in view,
Land where my dreams all come true!

Adoption of the State Song
ALTTAG
Beautiful Ohio
Courtesy Duke University

The song, 'Beautiful Ohio', words by Ballard MacDonald (1882-1935) and music by Mary Earl was adopted by the Ohio Legislature as the official state song on October 14, 1969.

However, the song adopted in 1969 was not the same song that serves as the official state song today. The words have been changed. Thirty years after the song was adopted as the official state song, in 1969, a bill was introduced and passed changing the words of 'Beautiful Ohio' as adopted by the state. New words were written by Youngstown, Ohio attorney, Wilbert B. McBride. This is why, above and in the statute below, 'special lyrics' are attributed to Wilbert B. McBride. The original words to 'Beautiful Ohio' follow:

Long, long time ago
Someone I know
Had a little red canoe,
In it room for only two.
Love found its start
Then in my heart,
And like a flower grew.

CHORUS:
Drifting with the current down a moonlit stream,
While above the Heavens in their glory gleam,
And the stars on high
Twinkle in the sky,
Seeming in a paradise divine,
Dreaming of a pair of eyes that looked in mine.
Beautiful Ohio, in dreams again I see
Visons of what used to be.

Not only are the current words to the Ohio state song different than the words to the song that was adopted in 1969, but Mary Earl is not Mary Earl. Mary Earl is a pseudonym, or pen name, for Robert A. 'Bobo' King (1862-1932) of New York City. In 1918, he went to work for Shapiro-Bernstein Music Publishers under a contract to produce 4 songs per month. One of the songs he produced during that period was 'Beautiful Ohio'. The music for the song was adapted from a waltz of the same name.

Ohio Revised Code

The following information is excerpted from the Ohio Revised Code, General Provisions, Chapter 5, Section 9. The words are included within the statute.

GENERAL PROVISIONS
CHAPTER 5. STATE INSIGNIA; SEALS; HOLIDAYS
SECTION 09.