This is the only clue I could turn up after exhaustive searching, Keiva. From a site called "Sayings and Everyday Expressions" (but nothing more there, what you see here is what you get).

BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE THE COUNTRY OUT OF THE BOY---Changing the place a person lives
does not change one's character or personality.---B. Baer (1938.) Hollywood. ...


I searched extensively on the B. Baer lead, but found zilch.