[Verse 1]
It was on an Indiana farm
In the middle of the country
Growin' in the fields of grain
Jim Dean of Indiana

[Verse 2]
His mother died when he was a boy
His father was a stranger
Marcus Winslow took him in
Nobody seemed to want him

[Verse 3]
The hired man sang like a storm
Sometimes he would beat him
'Cause he would never do the chores
He was lost in dreamin'

[Verse 4]
He never seemed to find a place
With the flatlands and the farmer
So he had to leave one day
He said to be an actor

[Verse 5]
Once he'd come back to the farm
With starlets from the stages
They locked themselves inside his room
The people turned their faces
[Verse 6]
A neighbor run from the movie house
Chickens there were scattered
He swore he saw upon the screen
Jim Dean of Indiana

[Verse 7]
He played a boy without a home
Torn with no tomorrow
Reaching out to touch someone
A stranger in the shadow

[Verse 8]
The Winslows left for the movie town
They drove across the country
They hoped that he would stay around
And they hoped he would be friendly

[Verse 9]
He talked to them for half an hour
But he was busy racing
He left for the Grapevine road
They left for Indiana

[Verse 10]
Then Marcus heard on the radio
That a movie star was dying
He turned the tuner way down low
So Ortense could go on sleeping
[Verse 11]
It was not until they reached the farm
Where the hired man was waitin'
The wind was silent through the grain
It was just like they had told him

[Verse 12]
They buried him just down the road
A mile from the farmhouse
That is where I placed a flower
For Jim Dean of Indiana