"Ode to Billie Joe" is a 1967 song written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry, a singer-songwriter from Chickasaw County, Mississippi. The single, released in late July, was a number-one hit in the United States, and became a big international seller. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song for 1967 (the other two were #2 "The Letter" by the Box Tops and #1 "To Sir With Love" by Lulu). The song is ranked #412 on Rolling Stone's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and at #144 in Pitchfork's 200 Best Songs of the 1960s.
Story
The song is a first-person narrative to "sparse"  musical accompaniment. It reveals a tale, mostly in the form of brief dialog extracts by the narrator's family at dinnertime, on the day that a local boy - and apparently friend of the narrator - jumped to his death from a nearby bridge. Throughout the song, the suicide and other tragedies are contrasted against the banality of everyday routine and polite conversation. The final verse conveys the quick passage of events and other deaths in a year's time.  The song begins with the narrator, her brother and her father returning, after agricultural morning chores, to the family house for dinner (on June 3). After cautioning them about tracking in dirt, "Mama" says that she "got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" that "Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge".  At the dinner table, the narrator's father appears unmoved and almost dismissive; he comments that "Billie Joe never had a lick o' [meaning, any] sense", and asks for the biscuits to be passed to him, and comments that he has "five more acres in the lower forty" to plow. Her brother seems somewhat taken aback ("I saw him at the sawmill yesterday ... And now you tell me Billie Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"), but follows the comment by asking for a second slice of pie. He recalls a prank that he and his friends played on the narrator, and that he saw her and Billie Joe talking after church a few days previously.  The only person who seems genuinely upset is the narrator. Her mother - who eventually notices the narrator's abrupt and complete change of mood at the news - seems unable to realize she is affected by the news ("Child, what's happened to your appetite? I been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched a single bite"). She shares other news instead, that a local preacher visited earlier in the day, and almost as an aside, that the preacher had mentioned seeing Billie Joe and a girl who looked very much like the narrator herself "throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge" - the object they were throwing is not identified. But again, the narrator's mother fails to connect this in any way to her daughter's emotional distress.  In the song's final verse, a year has passed, and brought more harm and pain. The narrator's brother has married Becky Thompson, but they have moved away to another town ("bought a store in Tupelo"). Their father died from an unspecified viral infection, and their mother has been depressed and despondent, and "doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything". The narrator is also affected by the malaise; the main change she describes in her own life, is that she often visits Choctaw Ridge and picks flowers there to drop from the Tallahatchie Bridge into the murky waters of the river where Billy Joe jumped to his death.

Q: How does the story begin?
A: It reveals a tale, mostly in the form of brief dialog extracts by the narrator's family at dinnertime, on the day that a local boy

Q: What did the local boy do?
A: jumped to his death from a nearby bridge.

Q: Why did he jump?
A: the suicide and other tragedies are contrasted against the banality of everyday routine and polite conversation.

Q: Who are other characters in the song?
A: The song begins with the narrator, her brother and her father returning, after agricultural morning chores, to the family house for dinner (on June 3).

Q: What did they do next?
A: After cautioning them about tracking in dirt, "Mama" says that she "got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge" that "Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge".

Q: How did the family react>
A: At the dinner table, the narrator's father appears unmoved and almost dismissive; he comments that "Billie Joe never had a lick o' [meaning, any] sense

Q: Did the brother have anything to say?
A: Her brother seems somewhat taken aback ("I saw him at the sawmill yesterday ... And now you tell me Billie Joe has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"),

Q: Was anyone actually upset?
A: The only person who seems genuinely upset is the narrator. Her mother - who eventually notices the narrator's abrupt and complete change of mood at the news -
What does her mother do?
She shares other news instead, that a local preacher visited earlier in the day, and almost as an aside,
She shares other news instead, that a local preacher visited earlier in the day, and almost as an aside,