A biographical protest folk song about the textile worker, union organizer and writer of labor songs and protest folk songs--who was killed during 1929 strike by Textile Workers Union in Gastonia, North Carolina. (lyrics) (chorus) Ella May Wiggins Created union songs Ella May Wiggins Killed in Gastonia. (verses) When Ella May was 10 years old Her family moved from its poor farm From the Great Smokies to a logging camp Where she washed clothes in wooden tubs. At age sixteen, Ella married A logger named John Wiggins She had a kid at seventeen But then the heavy log fell down. It fell on her husband, the heavy log So no longer could he walk or find work But into the mill went Ella May Wiggins Her family, she now did support. (chorus) Sixty hours a week, working as a spinner In-between mothering more kids Her injured husband, he started to drink And finally John Wiggins disappeared. For ten years she slaved inside the textile mills And from sickness, four kids of hers died No money for medicine, her wages were too low, But the Textile Workers Union then arrived. In Gastonia, North Carolina Workers struck in 1929 The bosses shot down strikers and Ella May's songs protested So the mill owners said that Ella May must die. (chorus) Led by cops and motorcycles Five hundred vigilantes Attacked union members on the street The union called a meeting to protest all the beatings To be held on September 14th. The road to Gastonia was blocked by a mob Who shot at unarmed workers Ella May Wiggins' breast was hit with a bullet And at age 29 she met her death. Two hundred workers marched behind her coffin When they buried Ella May in rain And the "Mill MOther's Lament" a song she did write Was sung at the site of her grave. (chorus)