Delaware looks to make official state song gender neutral

Most Delawareans might be hard pressed to name the state's official song – let alone sing it from memory.

But the words of "Our Delaware" are suddenly at the heart of a mini-controversy.

Two, in fact.

State Rep. Gerald Brady, D-Wilmington, on Tuesday introduced a bill that seeks to make the 93-year-old state anthem more inclusive by replacing two male pronouns with what he describes as "gender-neutral language."

"Social mores have changed and these simple modifications are a response to that," Brady said. "We are constantly adapting, amending and modifying things to contemporary circumstances as society changes. That's the beauty of democracy."

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Other legislators are less than thrilled with the proposed changes, which some see as an overreach of political correctness.

"Is this a joke," asked state Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover. "Are we going to change the words of rock'n'roll and blues songs that refer to women next?"

The debate is reminiscent of a long-running battle over Maryland's official state song, "Maryland, My Maryland." That anthem has been heavily criticized for its references to President Abraham Lincoln as a tyrant, despot and vandal, and incorporating the phrase "sic semper tyrannis" that John Wilkes Booth shouted when he murdered the president.

Repeated attempt to replace's Maryland's state song have failed, but the Old Line State's Legislature last year did change the motto on the state seal from "manly deeds, womanly words" to "strong deeds, gentle words."

Brady said did not come up with the idea of changing Delaware's state song on his own. Instead, it first was proposed by Donn Devine, an 88-year-old resident of his district who just so happens to have a co-writing credit on "Our Delaware."

Devine, a former Wilmington city planner and retired brigadier general in the Delaware National Guard, authored the fourth verse that was formally added to the song in the late 1950s after he won a contest sponsored by the office of former Gov. J. Caleb Boggs.

Devine said he is far less worried about political correctness than the fact that no one sings the state song anymore. When he was a student, he said, children sang the original three verses after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

But today, the anthem is largely an unused relic.

"I thought one reason might be that third-grade girls singing about being 'a loyal son' just didn't fit anymore," he said, referring to one of the lines that would be changed in Brady's bill.

And here's where the second controversy comes in.

Devine says he proposed the line in the third verse about Sussex County be changed from, "Here's the loyal son that pledges/Faith to good old Delaware" to "Here's the loyal pledge we offer/Faith to the good old Delaware."

The bill, however, proposes changing "loyal son" to "loyal one" and altering a line in the second verse about Kent County from "Where the toiler seeks his pillow" to "a pillow."

Both of those verses were written by the song's original author George Beswick Hynson Sr., a lawyer, poet, newspaper editor and the 1912 Progressive Party candidate for Delaware governor.

When Devine saw the changes proposed in Brady's bill, he balked and demanded to have his name removed from the legislation.

"I wanted to make it gender neutral but it should sound like natural language," he said. "Those changes sound very artificial to me."

Brady said the proposed change to "loyal son" was the result of an internal miscommunication. He promised to introduce an amendment to make the proposed change match what Devine had initially requested.

That satisfied Devine, who withdrew his opposition.

"I'm glad we got that settled," Brady said. "I don't think 'Our Delaware' was ever a Top 40 hit, but the goal here is to help Mr. Devine make the song relevant again. Even if it is a relic, it needs to be something that has a connection to the past and the present."

Bonini said he admires his fellow legislator's commitment to constituent services and agrees that "Our Delaware" should be heard more often. But he's also concerned with what he described as "P.C. overreach."

"There's nothing wrong with the state song," he said. "Personally, I don't think we should be messing with it."

The last known attempt to change the official state song came in 1995 when the late former state Sen. Donna Reed, R-Newark, sought to create a commission tasked with getting to bottom of why "Our Delaware" had fallen out of favor and recommending a possible substitute.

Her bill, which was co-sponsored by Bonini, never made it out of committee. 

Lyrics of "Our Delaware"

Words by: George B. Hynson and Donn Devine (4th verse)
Music by: Will M. S. Brown

First verse

Oh the hills of dear New Castle,
and the smiling vales between,
When the corn is all in tassel,
And the meadowlands are green;

Where the cattle crop the clover,
And its breath is in the air,
While the sun is shining over
Our beloved Delaware.

Chorus

Oh our Delaware!
Our beloved Delaware!
For the sun is shining over
our beloved Delaware,
Oh our Delaware
Our beloved Delaware!
Heres the loyal son that pledges,
Faith to good old Delaware.

Second verse

Where the wheat fields break and billow,
In the peaceful land of Kent,
Where the toiler seeks his pillow,
With the blessings of content;

Where the bloom that tints the peaches,
Cheeks of merry maidens share,
And the woodland chorus preaches
A rejoicing Delaware.

Third verse

Dear old Sussex visions linger,
Of the holly and the pine,
Of Henlopens Jeweled finger,
Flashing out across the brine;

Of the gardens and the hedges,
And the welcome waiting there,
For the loyal son that pledges
Faith to good old Delaware.

Fourth verse

From New Castle's rolling meadows,
Through the fair rich fields of Kent,
To the Sussex shores hear echoes,
Of the pledge we now present;

Liberty and Independence,
We will guard with loyal care,
And hold fast to freedom's presence,
In our home state Delaware.

Contact reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.