"Fat Lady Sings" in Dallas Morning News

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 6 Sep 2005, Dave Wilton wrote:

> 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.

There are claims that Dan Cook was using "fat lady" before 1978, but no
citations, not even in Cook's book, and the story given in the earliest
known Cook-related citation (Washington Post, 3 June 1978) is directly
contradicted by the 1976 Dallas Morning News cite.

To me, any source that is one of the two earliest known carries some
authority, so I take the 1976 _Southern Words and Sayings_ citation very
seriously.  It probably indicates that the "church" version was around
before 1976.

Fred Shapiro


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