Jessie
"What do you mean Buford lost his marbles, you boys play too many games, games, games, games. Jessie had a right to be upset, her life had not been an easy one, and to hear such flippant remarks made her quite upset.
Jessie's mother had been a women of "questionable" character in San Francisco, California, and immediately after Jessie's birth, she was placed in a Mormon Church home for abandoned children, and was shortly thereafter, adopted by the Richards family of Modesto, California. As a baby, Jessie was considered a "good" baby, and gave the Richards family of Modesto, little to worry about. As she grew older, though, they were concerned about her behavior. She seemed to be constantly getting in to trouble, lighting little fires in her bedroom, fighting with the neighborhood children, and even her own step brothers and sisters, a fact they didn't let her forget.
By the time she was fourteen, the Richards had given up. And even with the help of the church and the Elders of the church, they felt the best course to take was to find another home for Jessie. Through a Mormon Church affiliation, a family in Klamath Falls, Oregon agreed to take her in, and Jessie took the few possessions she had, and was driven to Oregon by Elder Joseph Smith Cartwright.
Upon arrival, they located the Peters Home, and Elder Cartwright helped Jessie move her few belongings in to the Peters home. Jessie settled in, and life was going well for her. But, there was always a void in her life, something she always wanted to know, and that was more about her Mother. She knew she would never locate her father, as there was no name on the birth record. Her Mother, Francine, whose real Indian name was Gentle Fawn, had no idea who the father was, as there had been so many men in her life. She had always felt that the real father was a transvestite wig maker from the Soho District of San Francisco.
When Jessie was in the eleventh grade at Klamath High School, someone accidentally found out about her past while visiting the Temple in Salt Lake City where all the records are stored. Once this information was revealed in Klamath Falls, life became unbearable for Jessie, and she ran away from home, and made her way to Fallon, Nevada, where she bumped in to the Shepherd Family from Newark, Ohio.
The family immediately took a liking to Jessie. They had a daughter Jessie's age, a son Robert, and a younger daughter, Pamela. When they heard of Jessie plight, they made a few phone calls, threw caution to the wind, and drove back to Newark, with Jessie. She became a member of the Shepherd Family, and very much loved being a part of a wonderful family. And, then, one dark night, as Jessie was returning to the Shepherd home after 3 hours of studying at the Newark Public Library, three boys around her age followed her, taunted her. yelled unkind names at her, and frightened her immensely. She started running towards her home and safety, the boys started running. Jessie kept running, she was getting short of breath, her legs were getting tired, she kept on running, so did the boys She felt she could not go on any longer. However, Jessie's stamina was stronger than the "boys" and she was able to outdistance them easily, and in a few blocks, made it to the safety of the Shepherdson Home.
The boys who had chased her were actually school chums of hers, and in school the next day, they were the first to approach her and comment on her graceful running, her speed and her stamina. Tom Young, one of the pursuers, commented, "Golly Jessie, we're sorry, I guess we were just trying to scare you or something, you know how boys can get, we didn't mean anything, we were just having some fun ... but, you sure can run fast, your Daddy must have been an Olympic track star or a football player or something."
"Oh, thank you," she demurely came back, "you had me frightened though, and you did call me a lot of nasty names, some of them ... well, I didn't even know what they were. One more thing, Jessie coyly stated, "I do have some Indian blood in me, and if any of you ever do anything like that again, well, I know some little Indian tricks, and all of you boys will be singing soprano in the school choir OK?"
Jessie was becoming more convinced that her father was not, in fact, the transvestite wig maker, but instead the Indian, perhaps an athlete or a football player who had spent some time with her mother. It would explain her Indian like features and her love of Venison and the outdoors, and her passion for football. She attended every game that she could, and always was familiar with the latest plays the teams were using. Perhaps, even to, it would give some credence as to why she kept setting little fires in her bedroom as a child in the Richards home, and then dancing as the house would be blazing.
She had also attempted, on one occasion, to trade her sister from some cheap costume jewelry at a local 5 and 10. "Yes," she thought to herself, "I am an Indian, and if all of this is true, then I know who my father must me ... an Indian Olympic Runner ... there were so few ... but, I will keep this information to myself and never let anyone know ... we are so close to Pennsylvania, but, I will keep this to myself." Jessie graduated from the high school, and enrolled in a small beauty school in town, with the hopes of becoming a hair dresser. Upon her graduation from the school, she found employment with a beauty shop in the Arcade .... The Regis ... and started her working career there. Her life was settling down, and then she met, Jim. Her work as a cosmetologist was forgotten, she would be a wife to Jim, and spend her waking hours making him happy. That was what she really wanted to do, and, Jim didn't try to talk her out of it.
