(Copyright Kristen Grainger 2008)

My name is Doris Dean, I was born in 1917
Turned 90 years old today  or it could’ve been yesterday
I really couldn’t say
My mother named me Doris Dean for a trick rider she had seen
At some kind of old-time Wild West Show Part circus, part rodeo,
Don’t have those anymore

Chorus:
That’s something that I wish I’d seen
The brave and beautiful Doris Dean
Perform feats of courage and grace
Never break a sweat, every hair in place
Wish I could have learned to ride like that
In a split skirt and a star-spangled cowboy hat
Maybe everything would have turned out differently
For me, Doris Dean McConaughey

Farming beans out in Oregon, got us through the Depression
Then the winter I turned 23 I married Robert McConaughey
He ran the cannery
Three months later, maybe four, Rob went off to fight the big war
 Shot down on the Sea of Japan, or so said the telegram
 I got from Uncle Sam

Chorus:
That’s something that I wish I’d seen
The brave and beautiful Doris Dean
Perform feats of courage and grace
Never break a sweat, big smile on her face
Wish I could have learned to ride like that
In a satin shirt and a star-spangled cowboy hat
Maybe everything would have turned out differently
For me, Doris Dean McConaughey

Bridge:
Sometimes I lie here thinking, sometimes I just lie
Pretend that there’s some greater plan,it’s not my place to wonder why
But 90 years later, I must petition my creator
Is this all there is, this hill of beans, for the lesser of two Doris Deans

Chorus:
That’s something that I wish I’d been
The brave and beautiful Doris Dean
Look back with courage and grace See my ordinary life was no disgrace
Sure, I could have learned to ride like that,
Probably do without the cowboy hat, but still
Maybe then I’d see it all differently
And me, Doris Dean McConaughey