Walnut Grove, Minn.- In the wake of one of their more public spats, Laura Ingalls Wilder, newlywed to Almanzo Wilder, wishes to make a clarification.
“When Almanzo and I made up and I just asked him to never sing that song again, well, I think he thought it was just because Brenda Sue wrote it,” Laura comments. “But really, although I don’t want her name around my house, that’s not the reason. I just thought the song was bad.”
The song in question in My Only Love, recently published by Almanzo’s former flame Brenda Sue Longworth and purchased by Almanzo on a work trip to Sleepy Eye. Sources asked Almanzo if he thought it was a smart idea to buy a song written by someone he once courted when his wife was already upset, but he indicated he didn’t think it would be a problem since he bought Laura a present at the same time.
“Women sure are hard to figure out,” Almanzo laments.
Soon after the argument escalated to the point of a public fight, Charles and Caroline Ingalls decided to become far too involved in their daughter’s marital struggles and forced her to go home and talk to Almanzo before she even had a chance to wash the street dirt from her face.
“I was so mad and I thought things couldn’t get worse,” Laura shares, “but then as we pulled up to the house and I heard Almanzo singing, I thought it was just terrible. I didn’t even fully realize that it was Brenda Sue’s song at the time. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t ever have to hear it again. Did you listen to the lyrics on it? It’s not very good, and I think even if someone more talented than Manly tried to sing it, it still wouldn’t be that good.”
Laura ended by noting that “Pa sure would never play that song on his fiddle.”
At press time, Brenda Sue Longworth was being absorbed into the earth, never to be seen again.
