New Mexico State Song Origin of Song: Elizabeth Garrett was born in 1885 at the family's ranch in Little Creek Canyon, north of a village known as Alto. Pat Garrett, no longer a sheriff of Lincoln County, had moved to the canyon, where he built a ranch and raised cattle. She lost her eyesight when she was only a few hours old because of an over application of blue vitriol to her eyes. She was one of seven children born to Pat and Apolinaria Garrett. Elizabeth Garrett will not only be remembered as the daughter of the famed Sheriff Pat Garrett, but as the composer of New Mexico's state song, "Oh Fair New Mexico," a song that expresses so simply her beloved New Mexico. In 1917, Governor Washington E. Lindsey signed the legislation making O, Fair New Mexico the official State Song. In 1928 John Philip Sousa presented an arrangement of the state song to Governor A.T. Hannett and the people of New Mexico embracing a musical story of the Indian, the Cavalry, the Spanish, and the Mexican. Source: New Mexico Blue Book