County

A county, abbreviated Cnty. (US) or Co. (UK and Ireland), is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes, in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French conté or cunté denoting a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count (earl) or a viscount. The modern French is comté, and its equivalents in other languages are contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, graafschap, Gau, etc. (cf. conte, comte, conde, Graf).

When the Normans conquered England, they brought the term with them. The Saxons had already established the districts that became the historic counties of England, calling them shires (many county names derive from the name of the county town with the word "shire" added on: for example, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire). The Vikings introduced the term earl (from Old Norse, jarl) to the British Isles. Thus, "earl" and "earldom" were taken as equivalent to the continental use of "count" and "county". So the later-imported term became a synonym for the native English word scir ([ʃiːr]) or, in Modern English, shire. Since a shire was an administrative division of the kingdom, the term "county" evolved to designate an administrative division of national government in most modern uses.

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Bucks County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 625,249, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania and the 98th-most populous county in the United States. The county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English county of Buckinghamshire.

Bucks County is included in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, more commonly known as the Delaware Valley. It is located immediately northeast of Philadelphia and forms part of the southern tip of the eastern state border.

History

Founding

Bucks County is one of the three original counties created by colonial proprietor William Penn in 1682. Penn named the county after Buckinghamshire, the county where he lived in England. Penn built a country estate called Pennsbury Manor in Falls Township, Bucks County.

Some places in Bucks County were named after locations in Buckinghamshire, including Buckingham Township, named after the county town of Buckinghamshire; Chalfont, named after Chalfont St Giles, the parish home of William Penn's first wife and the location of the Jordans Quaker Meeting House, where Penn is buried; Solebury Township, named after Soulbury, England; and Wycombe, named after the town of High Wycombe.

Kenny Rogers

Kenneth Ray "Kenny" Rogers (born August 21, 1938) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone and has sold over 120 million records worldwide, certifying his position as one of the best-selling music artists of all time. On September 25, 2015 he announced on NBC's "Today" Show that he was retiring from show business after a final tour to spend more time with his wife and twin boys.

Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever". He was voted the "Favorite Singer of All-Time" in a 1986 joint poll by readers of both USA Today and People. He has received numerous such awards as the AMAs, Grammys, ACMs and CMAs, as well as a lifetime achievement award for a career spanning six decades in 2003.

Coward of the County

"Coward of the County" is a country song written by Roger Bowling and Billy Ed Wheeler, and recorded by American country music singer Kenny Rogers. It was released in November 1979 as the second single from the Triple Platinum album Kenny. A million-selling gold-certified 45, it is one of Rogers' biggest hits.

The song is about a man's nephew who is a reputed coward, but finally takes a stand for his lover. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. It also hit #1 on the Cash Box singles chart and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In addition, it hit #1 on the UK Singles chart. It was the most recent traditional country music song to hit number one in the UK, in February 1980. In Ireland, the song entered the charts at #1 on 13th February 1980, and stayed at the top of the charts for six consecutive weeks.

The song's story

The song tells the story of a young man named Tommy, who earns a notorious reputation as the "coward of the county" (and is nicknamed "Yellow," a slang term for a cowardly person) since he never stood up for himself one single time to prove the county wrong.