Talk:Juanita Brooks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Biography Portal
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
Photo request It is requested that a picture or pictures of this person be included in this article to improve its quality.

[edit] Is Juanita Brooks an anti-mormon?

I don't think so. She went to church her whole life, raised her kids in the gospel, etc. In her books, it seems she sought the truth, even when it was painful. What evidence do we have that she was critical of the church? Wadsworth 21:28, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
Brooks is best (if not solely) known for her works condemning the Church, which are a mainstay of anti-Mormon book vendors nationwide. Her Wikipedia bio only lists two books, both of which condemn the Church. I think that pretty much proves my point, and that means that it is a violation of the Neutrality Policy to quote her as an "historical expert" without noting that fact. -- Critic-tt-Arms
I read both of those books, the one on John D. Lee, and the one on the massacre. I'm a member of the church, and it didn't look to me like she was condemning it at all. Now, there was certainly a coverup of the whole massacre affair, and John D. Lee certainly got the raw end of the stick... but this was Brigham Young in survival mode. You can't really blame him, I think. What can you cite in any of her books that shows that she is critical? Wadsworth 22:10, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
I concur, Brooks is not anti-Mormon. Having read most/all of her material, I think she is careful neither to praise or blame the church, using a historian's objectivity as her primary style. Brooks was an "active" Mormon throughout her life. She was discouraged with the Church's reticence and secrecy surrounding the Massacre, was denied an interview with the President of the Church (by J. Reuban Clark, I think) to discuss using church resources, and was (on one occasion, at least) attacked from her local pulpit, but she never denounced the church or held herself apart from it. In a well known quote (I have it somewhere), she stated that it was best for her to move quietly on the edges of the church so that she could continue to have some influence. From her writing, I suspect both her church participation and her interest in presenting an accurate historical account were sincere. A recent edition of Brooks' book contains an introduction by non-Mormon historian Jan Shipps which has some interesting insights. WBardwin 00:16, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

Okay, I just got a message from Critic-at-Arms, the fellow who started this dialog. He had confused Juanita Brooks with Fawn Brodie. :) He blames it on either early senility or lack of sleep. :) Wadsworth 04:19, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Appropriate reference?

Does anyone know what material from Bringhurst's "Fawn McKay Brodie: A Biographers Life" was used in the article? Does it talk about Brooks and her work? Has any editor here read it? WBardwin 18:05, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Waneta Leone Leavitt

I love her memoirs, Quicksand and Cactus!'

[Brooks says that it was only after she attended school that she came to conform the spelling of her given name from Waneta. Brooks tells how her mother loved to attend the community of Bunkerville's regular dances and how it was that she was named after the beautiful maiden, Juanita, whom the tragic cowboy visited at the cantina or dancehall in the then-popular ballad Streets of Laredo........] --Justmeherenow March 2007 (UTC)

I do not understand that. The ballad "Streets of Laredo" that I am familiar with does not mention a Juanita nor a cantina. And it was popular with "Streets of Laredo" lyrics much later than when Juanita would have been named. Maybe some other song conflated with Streets of Laredo.. like the song El Paso where a tragic cowboy visits a cantina. But that girl was "Felina", not Juanita. So I really do not understand this quote at all.--Blue Tie 06:42, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
I think you are confusing "Streets of Laredo" with a more contemporary CW song about El Paso (song) written by Marty Robbins. Robbins named his "maiden" Felina/Feleena. Streets of Laredo (song) on Wikipedia does not name a maiden at all. WBardwin 08:34, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
I had mentioned both of those songs. Neither of them mentions a Juanita. And I am unable to find any other "Streets of Larado" ballad. So the quote is confusing. --Blue Tie 09:59, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

The Cowboy's Lament/Streets of Laredo may descend from an Irish and British ballad of the late eighteenth century, The Unfortunate Rake. Also note that country-western singer Marty Robbins' "El Paso" (1960) is likewise of this genre - i.e., is a multiple-versed, tragic ballad about a lonesome cowboy, a lovely dancehall maiden, sudden violence and mourning.

As for The Cowboy's Lament/Streets of Laredo itself, Austin E. and Alta S. Fife in Songs of the Cowboys (1966) say, "There are hundreds of texts, with variants so numerous that scholars will ever assemble and analyze them all" and note that versions which came to find their way into print, such Lomax's 1910 version, have often been Bowdlerized. One of the Fifes' sources "exaggerating somewhat, says that there were originally seventy stanzas, sixty-nine of which had to be whistled." [1]

What follows is a slightly more rakish and less Bowdlerized version of The Cowboy's Lament.

_______
'Twas once in my saddle I used to be happy
'Twas once in my saddle I used to be gay
But I first took to drinking, then to gambling
A shot from a six-shooter took my life away.
Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily
Sing your dearth march as you bear me along
Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
-
My curse let it rest, rest on the fair one
Who drove me from friends that I loved and from home
Who told me she loved me, just to deceive me
My curse rest upon her, wherever she roam.
Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily
Sing your dearth march as you bear me along
Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
-
Oh she was fair, Oh she was lovely
The belle of the Viliage the fairest of all
But her heart was as cold as the snow on the mountains
She gave me up for the glitter of gold.
Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily
Sing your dearth march as you bear me along
Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
-
I arrived in Galveston in old Texas
Drinking and gambling I went to give o'er
But, I met with a Greaser and my life he has finished
Home and relations I ne'er shall see more.
Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily
Sing your dearth march as you bear me along
Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
-
Send for my Father. O send for my Mother
Send for the surgeon to look at my wounds
But I fear it is useless I feel I am dying
I'm a young cow-boy cut down in my bloom.
Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily
Sing your dearth march as you bear me along
Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
-
Farewell my friends, farewell my relations
My earthly career has cost me sore
The cow-boy ceased talking, they knew he was dying
His trials on earth, forever were o'er.
Beat your drums lightly, play your fifes merrily
Sing your dearth march as you bear me along
Take me to the grave yard, lay the sod o'er me
I'm a young cow-boy and know I've done wrong.
-
--From Songs of the Cowboys an 1908 version of "Cowboy's Lament," typographical errors unchanged --Justmeherenow 01:21, 8 March 2007 (UTC)