Linda CumminsLinda Simon Cummins was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1951. Her father was Cajun, and her mother was from an old East Texas family. Her grandmother's great-grandfather had left Virginia and settled in Texas, where he married a Cherokee woman. Linda gre up listening to family stories of the Chisholm Trail and traveling in wagon trains. From the age of nine, she spent every winter in Virginia's Tidewater Region and every summer back home in Texas. Her parents were history buffs, so they often traveled with Linda to historical sites in the U.S. and passed along their love of history to their daughter.Linda had an inherent talent for art and chose that as her career. However, Linda stated, "I have dyslexia, and as anyone with a learning disability knows, classrooms were not always a happy place. The problem was, I was having difficulties with my craft and was not happy with the quality of my work. Savannah College of Art & Design became my solution. They provided classes that addressed the very problem I was having, giving me a new prospective." But when a ruptured disc landed her "flat on her back," she started to write. Linda said, "Researching and writing Katherine Elizabeth Russell proved to be therapeutic. It brought me out of myself and my circumstance. The story gave me a new purpose. It was a pleasure to spend four years researching, illustrating, and writing this book." Read More Read Less