The song is a reflection of a young man's (Merle Haggard) grandmother, Martha Frances Arizona Belle “Zona” Villines Harp, (aka "Grandma Harp") the family matriarch and title character who was born in Newton County, Arkansas, and lived for 90 years.
The protagonist (who sings the song in first person) says that her life story can be told in only a few short lines, but reflects on how Grandma Harp (along with Grandpa, whom she married in 1901) was a rock that held the family together. The album version includes a spoken word prologue, where Haggard reflects how his grandmother lived through an era of tremendous historical and social change, from the first automobiles to two world wars and the first man to walk on the Moon.
