Well, I was born'd a coal miner's daughter In a cabin, on a hill in Butcher Holler We were poor, but we had love That's the one thing that daddy made sure of He shoveled coal t' make a poor man's dollar [Well, I was born'd a coal miner's daughter In a cabin, on a hill in Butcher Holler We were poor, but we had love That's the one thing that daddy made sure of He shoveled coal t' make a poor man's dollar My daddy worked all night in the Van Lear Coal Mines All day long in the field a-hoein' corn Mommy rocked the babies at night And read The Bible by the coal-oil light Everything would start all over come break of morn' Daddy loved and raised eight kids on a miner's pay Mommy scrubbed our clothes on a washboard every day
Why, I seen her fingers bleed, to complain, there was no need She'd smile in mommy's understanding way In the summertime we didn't have shoes to wear But in the wintertime, we'd all get a brand new pair From a mail-order catalog, money made from sellin' a hog Daddy always managed to get the money somewhere Yeah, I'm proud to be a coal miner's daughter I remember well the well where I drew water The work we done was hard, at night we'd sleep 'cause we were tired I never thought of ever leavin' Butcher Holler Well, a lot of things have changed since a'way back then And it's so good to be back home again Not much left but the floors, nothin' (alt: no one) lives here anymore 'Cept the memories of a coal miner's daughter