Zerelda James
Zerelda Elizabeth Cole James Simms Samuel (January 29, 1825 – February 10, 1911) was the mother of Frank James and Jesse James.
Born as Zerelda Elizabeth Cole in Woodford County, Kentucky her parents were James and Sarah Lindsay Cole; she had one younger brother, Jesse Richard Cole. One year younger than she, her brother committed suicide in 1895 for undisclosed reasons.
When Zerelda was a small child, her father broke his neck in a riding accident leaving her mother with two small children; they were taken in by her paternal grandfather who owned a saloon. Later her mother re-married (to a farmer surnamed Thompson). Zerelda, by all accounts, did not get along with her new stepfather so she went to live with some of her mother's relatives in Kentucky where she attended a Catholic girls school.
Read more about Zerelda James: First Marriage, Second Marriage, Third Marriage, Post Jesse: The James Farm Tour, Death, Timeline
Famous quotes containing the word james:
“When the Revolutionaries ran short of gun wadding the Rev. James Caldwell ... broke open the church doors and seized an armful of Watts’ hymnbooks. The preacher threw them to the soldiers and shouted, “Give ‘em Watts, boys—give ‘em Watts!””
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)