Anna Lee Williams Amsden was born and raised in the Delta in Turkey Scratch near Marvell, Phillips County, Arkansas. A childhood neighbor and close, life-long friend of Levon Helm, she is immortalized in The Band's legendary song, "The Weight," on their first album, Music From Big Pink.
“Go down, Miss Moses,there's nothin' you can say. It's just ol' Luke,and Luke's waitin' on the Judgement Day. "Well, Luke, my friend,what about young Anna Lee?" He said, "Do me a favor, son,won’t you stay and keep Anna Lee company?"
Mary Cavette Vaiden grew up on the same dirt road as Levon Helm in Marvell, Arkansas, and the pair were lifelong friends. After leaving the Arkansas Delta at eighteen, Vaiden settled in Memphis, Tennessee, where she worked for 43 years at the Memphis Racquet Club, eventually serving as a senior executive. Throughout these years she and Levon maintained a close friendship, and she was by his side when he died in New York City in 2012.
#1: Still frame from interview with Anna Lee Amsden and Mary Cavette Vaiden; Little Rock, Arkansas, 2005
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#2: Still frame from interview with Anna Lee Amsden; Little Rock, Arkansas, 2005
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#3: Still frame from interview with Mary Cavette Vaiden; Little Rock, Arkansas, 2005
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
#4: Levon Helm dancing with Mary Cavette Vaiden; Little Rock, Arkansas, 2005
© Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas
