Zerelda “Zee” Mimms was the wife and first cousin of Jesse James. She was born July 21, 1845, to John W. and Mary James Mimms. Mary James was Jesse’s father’s sister. Mary had named her daughter after Jesse James’s mother. Zee nursed Jesse’s war wounds at her father’s boardinghouse, north of Kansas City, in 1865. She was engaged to him for nine years, and they married on April 24, 1874, at her sister’s house in Kearney, Missouri.

Zee bore Jesse James four children, two of whom survived: Jesse Edward and Mary Susan. She and the children were present in the house when Jesse James was shot in the back of the head on April 3, 1882. After his death, Zee struggled financially to raise her children. She died on November 13, 1900, in Kansas City, Missouri. She is buried beside her husband in Kearney, Missouri.

Unless otherwise noted, text and images © 2007, State Historical Society of Missouri