From the recording Lift the World
By Loretta Simonet ©2022 BMI
Curtis’ grandmother was delivered by suffragist Dr Danforth, in 1893.
Loretta - vocals, guitar
Curtis - vocals, guitar
Sandy Njoes - bass fiddle
Tom Schaefer - fiddle
Historical research information on Dr Grace Danforth
provided by Dr Jessica Brannon-Wranosky,
Distinguished Professor of Digital Humanities
and History, Texas A & M University - Commerce
Lyrics
Our Grace became a doctor
In Eighteen eighty-eight
But Dallas doctors said,
“This is not a woman’s place.”
The Medical Association said,
“This just seems wrong.
Why would you leave your hearth and home?
Isn’t that where you belong?”
CHORUS
Doctor Grace Danforth
Spoke up loud and clear
With head held high
She notified the whole wide world
“We are reaching out now
To be useful to be free.
Women march into the future
That is meant to be.”
She brought so many babies
Into this changing world
The vaccine for smallpox
She gave to boys and girls
And all her patients loved her
For she gave each one her best
Still others did not trust her
For she was a suffragist
She was a founding member
In Eighteen ninety-three
Of Texas Equal Rights
Association, you see
When men said, “They don’t need to vote,
For we will speak for them,”
She said, “We will speak for ourselves,
For we are equal to men.”
She spoke and wrote and organized
All for the noble cause
To help her sisters win the prize
Of the ballot box
But on her birthday just as she
Was turning forty-six
She slipped away from this old earth
But oh she left us this