The Yellow Rose of Texas

As a child in Texas, you learn this along with a few other state-related songs for grade school programs and talent shows. A shining piece of American folk tradition.

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There's a yellow rose in Texas
I am going to see,
No other cowboy knows her,
No cowboy only me;
She cried so when I left her,
It like to break my heart
And if I ever find her
We never more will part.

She's the sweetest rose of color
This cowboy ever knew,
Her eyes are bright as diamonds,
They sparkle like the dew,
You may talk about your dearest May
And sing of Rosalie
But the yellow rose of Texas
Beats the girls of Tennessee.

Oh, now I'm going to find her,
For my hearts is full of woe,
And we'll sing the songs together
That we sang so long ago;
We'll play the banjo gaily,
And we'll sing the songs of yore
And the yellow rose of Texas
Shall be mine for evermore.

The actual "Yellow Rose of Texas" was the nickname given to Emily West Morgan, a young woman was captured by General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna (known to most Texas school children as just plain Santa Anna) and his army, and influenced the Battle of San Jacinto.

Emily, together with a fellow indentured servant, were captured shortly before the battle of San Jacinto. She was made to act as mistress to the general, but as a loyal Texan was able to convince the young man who was captured along with her to inform General Sam Houston's army of the location of Santa Anna's camp, so that the Texans were able to take the Mexican army completely by surprise and win the battle quite quickly. She was later freed from capture and from her servitude as reward for her bravery.

The first recorded copy of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" was handwritten on a piece of paper circa 1836, and is thought to have probably been written shortly before or just after the battle, which took place on April 21, 1836. The song was originally written from the point of view of a black soldier, but was later changed and adopted as a battle song throughout the U.S.

RE: Why the rose was yellow;
The term "yellow" was often used in those days to describe a person of mixed racial decent, someone who's skin was neither "black" nor "white".

Most of this I was able to write from memory. Online source: http://alamo-de-parras.welkin.org/archives/yellowrose/yelrose.html