To A Legend Of The American West On His Birthday: Doc Holliday

John Henry Holliday was born in Georgia, in eighteen fifty one,

when he was nineteen he enrolled in dental school, it wasn't any fun,

he got his degree, and a practice he did start,

then he got tuberculosis and his practice fell apart,

John Henry "Doc" Holliday

August 14, 1851-November 8, 1887

American gambler, gunfighter, and dentist

he heard that the dry air in the west would buy him some time,

he went to Dallas Texas but he couldn't make a dime,

he started into gambling as a way of life

it really didn't matter because he had no wife,

he was in a poker game, one dark and rainy night,

one of the players was losing bad, and he started into fight,

Doc pulled a gun, and shot the fighter dead,

he placed 2 bullets side by side, right into his head,

the next man he killed was a soldier, stationed in a fort nearby,

Doc knew he was in trouble and he had to leave or die,

he headed into Apache country, for Denver he was bound,

he killed three more men along the way and left'em on the ground,

he became Tom Mackey, no one knew him there,

he hoped he would get some help from that good old mountain air

trouble it came calling, as trouble usually will,

a gambler called him a cheater, so the gambler he did kill,

he drifted into Wyoming, then down to New Mexico,

couldn't make much money, so to Texas he did go,

there he met the only woman, she was to be his mate,

Maria Izabella Magdolna Horony

a.k.a "Big Nose Kate"

November 9, 1849-November 2, 1940

Hungarian-born lover of Doc Holliday

she was a pretty woman, they called her, 'big nose Kate',

they lived together for six months or so,

then Kate, she got edgy and said she had to go,

Doc got a job dealing cards in Shanssey's saloon,

it was there he met Wyatt Earp, friends they were very soon,

Wyatt he was on the trail, of a killer cold and cruel,

so Doc went along with him, he was nobody's fool,

when they found the killer, there was a fight of course,

Wyatt went back to Dodge, with the killer across his horse,

Doc drifted all around, he missed Big nosed Kate,

she was the only woman that could ever be his mate,

He finally went to Kansas, Dodge City was his aim,

he hoped to run into Wyatt and find a poker game,

From left to right: Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil Earp

Wyatt and his brothers had left about a month before,

on his way to Tombstone Arizona he was there for sure,

So Doc went to find Him, his health was getting bad,

it was the driest air, that could ever be had,

when he got to Tombstone, Wyatt and his brothers were already there,

and Doc was very welcome to pull up a chair,

now you know the story, yes you know the tale,

of that fatal gun fight at the OK corral,

Tombstone, Arizona

(circa 1881)

finally Doc got so bad, he had to go to a sanitarium,

he didn't go alone. Wyatt went right with him,

there Doc lay in his bed for fifty seven days,

then he finally atoned for his wicked ways.

"Doc Holliday"

 Harry Bryant

(1832-  

American poet