"Fat Lady Sings" in Dallas Morning News

[Dave Wilton]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Fred Shapiro
> Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 4:41 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Fat Lady Sings" in Dallas Morning News
>
> I meant to type "the earliest Cook evidence is 1978."  Note that the
> garbled portion about "this Morgan, the league information director" is
> present in the original.

Are you sure? I have a note that Cook claimed to have used the phrase in a
column in the San Antonio News-Express in 1976. I don't have a date though.

I wouldn't put much stock in _Southern Words and Sayings_; it's hardly an
authoritative source. Obviously the "church" version of the phrase was
circulating in 1976, but how far back the phrase goes in Southern folklore
is questionable.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net
  http://www.wilton.net