Letter to the editor

Paean to Ruta Lee

(Hail to Edgar Allan Poe and his timeless Annabel Lee)

It was many and many a year ago

In a city at the West Fork-Clear Fork confluence of the Trinity,

That an actress there lived whom you may know

By the name of Ruta Lee;

And this actress she lived with no other thought

Than to love and be loved by the City

At the West Fork-Clear Fork confluence of the Trinity.

Her love for Fort Worth was stronger by far than the love

For those in Hollywood or even Big D,

Of many far richer than we.

But neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Nor a siege of atrocious foul weather for Steel Magnolias

Could ever dissever the soul of Fort Worth

From the soul of the Younger-Than-Springtime

Beautiful Ruta Lee.

Don Woodard

Fort Worth