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Guthrie, Woody - There's More True Lovers Than One
Identifier
020802
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
By the late 1940s, Guthrie's health was declining, and his behavior was becoming extremely erratic. He received various diagnoses (including alcoholism and schizophrenia), but in 1952, it was finally determined that he was suffering from Huntington's disease, a genetic disorder inherited from his mother. Believing him to be a danger to their children, Marjorie [his second wife] suggested he return to California without her; they eventually divorced.
Upon his return to California, Guthrie lived at the Theatricum Botanicum, a summer-stock type theatre founded and owned by Will Geer; with blacklisted singers and actors, he waited out the anti-communist political climate.
As his health worsened, he met and married his third wife, Anneke Van Kirk. They had a child, Lorinna Lynn. The couple moved to Fruit Cove, Florida, briefly. They lived in a bus on land called Beluthahatchee, owned by his friend Stetson Kennedy.
Guthrie's arm was hurt in a campfire accident when gasoline used to start the campfire exploded. Although he regained movement in the arm, he was never able to play the guitar again. In 1954, the couple returned to New York.
Shortly after, Anneke filed for divorce, a result of the strain of caring for Guthrie. Anneke left New York and allowed friends to adopt Lorinna Lynn. Lorinna had no further contact with her birth parents and died in a car accident in California in 1973 at the age of 19. After the divorce, Guthrie's second wife, Marjorie, re-entered his life and cared for him until his death.
A description of the experience
There's More True Lovers Than One
Words by Woody Guthrie
Look out acrost that sea and see those breakers swell
How many a love it's washed away no human tongue can tell
Nobody can ever solve that dark sea's mysteries
How many a love has bloomed and blown the same as you and me
There's more true lovers than one
There's more true lovers than one
Cast out aside by every tide
There's more true lovers than one
I looked acrost that sea to see them whitecap breakers rise
True love comes in like an ocean tide and like the wind it flies
Upon these moonlit sands how many a vow was sworn
How many a heart has tossed and broke while love went rolling on
There's more true lovers than one
There's more true lovers than one
Cast out aside by every tide
There's more true lovers than one
The moon so high above sees many a kiss exchanged
Sees many a heart that has to part to never return again
We carv'd our names in the sand where love's great waters roll
But names untold have washed away while love goes rolling on
There's more true lovers than one
There's more true lovers than one
Cast out aside by every tide
There's more true lovers than one