Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie - Lyrics - Alternative Versions

Alternative Versions

• One version collected for publication by the Southern Pacific Company in 1912 omits the final verse and concludes with another round of the chorus, which is there rendered:

"O bury me not on the lone prairie
Where the wild coyote will howl o'er me
Where the rattlesnakes hiss and the wind blows free
O bury me not on the lone prairie.

• Another specifies that the speaker is "a trapper...at the point of death /...short his bank account, short his breath".

• A special version performed by William Elliott Whitmore has been recorded for the game Red Dead Redemption :

"Oh bury me not on the lone prairie."
Where the coyotes wail and the wind blows free.
And when I die, don't bury me
beneath the western sky, on the lone prairie.

"Oh bury me not on the lone prairie."
These words came soft and painfully
from the pallid lips of a youth who lay
on his dyin' bed, at the break of day.

But we buried him there, on the lone prairie
where the rattle snakes hiss and the wind blows free.
In a shallow grave, no one to grieve
beneath the western sky, on the lone prairie.

"Oh bury me not on the lone prairie."
These words came soft and painfully
from the pallid lips of a youth who lay
on his dyin' bed, at the break of day.
On his dyin' bed, at the break of day.