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I wrote “Goodbye to a River” in 1976 in Texas.
I was living by the side of the Brazos River with my husband and our
two sons, Lynn and Al. We were located between Palo Pinto and
Mineral Wells, Texas.
Our land had not been lived on since the Indians were removed from
the mid 1800s.
We built everything we needed on our land with our own hands.
We grew our own food, had chickens for eggs, goats for milk and
horses for fun.
We put all of our hopes and dreams in our beloved ranch on the river
and thought that it would be our home place forever. It was
like paradise, surrounded by nature, wild flowers, wild animals, the
sounds, the sights, and each moment the miracles of Mother
Nature!....the river!
Then, the first nuclear power plant in Texas was build very close to
our home.
It was built near Glen Rose, Texas. They built it on Comanche
Peak which was historically the sacred meeting place for Indian
tribes in the area to discuss peace.
Of course, we felt like it was too dangerous to live so near the
Nuclear Power Plant which was only a few kilometers down the river.
So, we decided that we must leave our land and home.
We had a party for our dearest friends called “The Great American
Give-Away” and gave away all our life-long possessions of art, books
and various treasures.
Since that time I do not value material possessions. Now
I know that you can never really own anything.
We left the river in 1977..…”Brazos de Dios , Adios Goodbye”.
The popularity of this song launched my international career, and it
has been recorded in many different languages.
The Brazos River is the longest river in Texas. It is 1,400 km
(870 mi) generally southeast across Texas to the Gulf of Mexico
southwest of Galveston.
It was named by the Spanish “Brazos de Dios”.
“Brazos de Dios” in Spanish means “Arms of God”
Brazos = arms
de = of
dios = god
“Adios” is a Spanish word meaning “goodbye”
adios = goodbye
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