Jessie, Nell, and Nellie is based on true stories and actual happenings of each of the three women told to the author by her grandmother Nell and her mother Nellie. The story has been embellished with fictional characters and incidents in order to create a tale to remember.

A favorite of President Andrew Jackson and the daughter of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, Jessie Benton was acquainted with the famous from childhood. When the vivacious belle met John C. Frémont, “the handsomest young man who ever walked the streets of Washington,” love bloomed. Always passionately devoted to the controversial explorer, soldier, and politician, Jessie bore John five children, maintained a family life, charmed and campaigned on his behalf, and helped him write the popular reports of his western trailblazing. These pages, filled with public figures such as Kit Carson and Abraham Lincoln, present a lively and fearless woman.