The Carroll County Accident
Composer(s): Bob Ferguson
Performer(s): Porter Wagoner
and multiple other artists



Carroll County's pointed out as kind of square
The biggest thing that happens is the county fair
I guess that's why we thought it such a big event
What we call the Carroll County accident

The wreck was on the highway just outside the line
Walter Browning lost his life and for a time
It seemed that Mary Ellen Jones would surely die
But she lived long enough for her to testify

Walter Browning was a happy married man
And he wore a golden wedding ring upon his hand
But it was gone, nobody knew just where it went
He lost it in the Carroll County Accident

Mary Ellen testified that he flagged her down
Said he was sick and could she drive him into town
No one ever doubted what she said was true
'Cause she was well respected in the county too

I went down to see the wreck like all the rest
The broken glass the bloody seats the tangled mess
But I found something no one else had ever seen
Behind the dash in Mary's crumpled up machine

A little match box circled by a rubber band
And inside the ring from Walter Browning's hand
It took awhile to figure out just what it meant
The truth about the Carroll County accident

By dark of night I dropped the ring into a well
And took a sacred oath that I would never tell
The truth about the Carroll County accident
For the County ordered dad a marble monument

Yes, I lost him in the Carroll County accident