What Was Thrown Off the Tallahatchie Bridge?

I remember when the song and movie came out and everyone thought it was either a ring or a baby, Bobbie Gentry never would say either way. As far as the Carly Simon song, I always thought it was Warren Beatty too. Kind of a sarcastic post Mr. Burke.

It was a ring.

"You're So Vain" by Carly Simon.
No, no, it's about Mick Jagger!

It's about Warren Beatty. Mick Jagger sings the back-round vocals. This is very old news.

The reason I started this post is because two weekends ago I saw Lucinda Williams. She was great. Did primarily older material, but also did 4 or 5 new songs. Says she has enough recorded material for two new albums. Anyway, her final encore was "Ode to Billie Joe". It just got me thinking about how conroversial the song was when it first came out. A song about suicide with a mystery element. I'm not sure it really matters what was thrown off the bridge. It's kind of like all suicides, even if there is a note, you never really understand why.