Signwriter Joe

[Java Jive]

Woke in the night with a half-remembered rhyme running through my
head! I heard it only once at a Cheddar Folk Day longer ago than I
care to admit, and in order to convey I've had to make up the bits in
brackets (at least).

Question: Who wrote it, I have a name something like John
Alders(l)edge lurking in the mists, and how did the original go?

(This spot marks the grave of) Signwriter Joe
(Whose departure) could not have been sadder
(For he hurtled headlong) through a lettering O
When he slipped and fell off his ladder
...
...
... that he went the same way he came,
By slipping through a hole in a letter!