My brother said that I was rotten to the core.
I was the youngest child so I got by with more.
I guess she was tired by the time I came along.
She'd laugh until she cried I could do no wrong.
She would always save me because I was her baby.

I worked a factory in Ohio, a shrimp boat in the Bayou,
I drove a truck in Birmingham. I turned 21 in Cincinnati,
I called home to mom and daddy, I said. ''Your boy is now a man.''
She said, ''I don't care if you're 80, you'll always be my baby.''

She loved that photograph of our whole family.
She'd always point us out for all her friends to see.
That's Greg he's doing great, he really loves his job.
Ronnie with his 2 kids, how 'bout that wife he's got.
And that one's kinda crazy, but that one is my baby.

I got a call in Alabama, said come on home to Louisiana
And come as fast as you can fly.
'Cause your momma really needs you, and says she's got to see you,
She might not make it through the night.
The whole way I drove 80, so she could see her baby.

She looked like she was sleepin' and my family had been weepin'
By the time that I got to her side.
And I knew that she'd been taken and my heart it was breakin',
I never got to say goodbye.

I softly kissed that lady and cried just like a baby...