Verse 1: I remember when a boy, how my heart was filled with joy,
When my sweetheart's promise made life seem so fair.
We'd just planned our wedding day when her mother chanced our way,
And within love's eyes she read love's story there
As I held her hand in mine, with its wealth of love divine;
I told her mother all there was to tell,
Then she blushed and bowed her head while these words her mother said,
As she vainly tried to hide the tears that fell:

Chorus: "She's all that I've wished her to be, John, My rose from Tennessee,
"And now that she's grown, Her heart is her own, From sorrow I hope she'll be free,
"You've won her affections, my boy, John, So take her and love her," said she.
"And it all rests with you, to be loyal and true, To my rose from Tennessee."

Verse 2: Time since then has left its trace, on the fair and blushing face,
Of my sweetheart who then soon became my wife,
We were wed for many years, but there's naught can stay the tears,
That the fond words of her mother brings to me.
Where the willows deck the stream, there we used to sit and dream,
She's sleeping while the birds sing overhead.
Still at times it seems to me, that her sweet face I can see,
And again I hear her loving mother say:

Chorus: "She's all that I've wished her to be, John, My rose from Tennessee,
"And now that she's grown, Her heart is her own, From sorrow I hope she'll be free,
"You've won her affections, my boy, John, So take her and love her," said she.
"And it all rests with you, to be loyal and true, To my rose from Tennessee."