The Death Of Dora Hand

[Intro]   C

[Verse 1]

C                             F           C
Dora Hand was a singer in the New York operetta
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Born into Boston old money, and Paristrained
           C                                               F            C
Dressed in black, she was a classic beauty but cursed with constitution sickly
                                 G                C
She ventured West to breathe the fresh air on the Plains
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She ended up down in Dodge City, it was a cowtown, dry and ugly
                                           G
She hid her past, took Fannie Keenan for a name
         C                                        F             C
Took the stage as a Vaudeville singer at the Lady Gay and the Alhambra
                              G               C
The cowboys loved her and she quickly rose to fame


[Chorus]
       F                    Dm
Sing a song, boys, for Dora Hand
    C                               F
She brought a little beauty to this hard and barren land
          Dm                          G
Doff your caps, boys, though saved or damned
         C
For Dora Hand


[Verse 2]
           C                                 F               C
Now to the Dodge folk she was an Angel, they called her Lady Bountiful By day, and "Queen Of 
Fairy Belles"
   G
by night
        C                                   F             C
She was bringing in good money, so she gave plenty to the needy
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She sure could sing, but she sure knew her wrong from right
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Now lovely Dora, she took the fancy of that mayor, James Dog Kelley
                                            G
Like many a man before him, he was heard to say
            C                                       F                C
"That there Dora is a beautiful creature, she gives men a strange nostalgia
                G                 C
Dreams of finer things and better days"


[Chorus]
          F                    Dm
So sing a song, boys, for Dora Hand
    C                               F
She brought a little beauty to this hard and barren land
        Dm                         G
Dream a dream, boys, of a promised land
        C
Of Dora Hand


[Bridge]
    Am                                          Em
Now young Spike Kennedy came up from Texas on a rolling black thunder cloud
         Dm                                                      Am
He was a-whooping and a-whoring and a-drowning in whiskey like a one-man bad luck crowd
    Am                                               Em
One night he saw Dora singing at the Alhambra and he tried to slip the lady a kiss
    Dm                                                        Am
Dog Kelley got angry and he knocked him on his belly with one flick of his Kansas wrist
         Dm                        Em                            Am              G           F
Well now Spike, he got mad, he was looking out for blood, he was raging like the Devil's stepson
   Dm                              Em                          Am           G          F
He rode out to the cabin which the mayor used for napping on a horse with a loaded six-gun
   Dm                        Em                           Am          G            F
He fired in the dark, but he didn't hit his mark when the bullet went through that wall
       Dm                       Em                  Am   G        Am
Kelley wasn't in his bed, lying there in his stead, Dora Hand was killed


[Guitar Solo]
C F C G C G C F C G F C G C


[Verse 3]
       C                                              F                   C
So the marshals, they raised a posse, and they caught up with young Spike Kenedy
                                          G
His daddy bought him free, even though he confessed
           Am                       F                  C
All Dodge City wept for Dora, every bar closed as they buried her
                     G               C
Four hundred cowboys rode her to her rest


[Chorus]
       F                            Dm
Sing a song, boys, with the funeral band
C                                   F
We won't see her like again in this hard and barren land
         Dm                     G
Wave her off, boys, to no man's land
     F
Dora Hand
         C
Our Dora Hand