Background
Gaither, Frances was born on May 21, 1889 in Somerville, Tennessee, United States. Daughter of Paul Tudor and Annie Matilda (Smith) Jones.
Gaither, Frances was born on May 21, 1889 in Somerville, Tennessee, United States. Daughter of Paul Tudor and Annie Matilda (Smith) Jones.
She graduated from the Mississippi State College for Women in 1909 and briefly taught high school English in Corinth.
She produced four books for children in the 1930s—three works of fiction, The Painted Arrow (1931), The Scarlet Coat (1934), Little Mission Cappo (1937), and a biography of Louisiana Salle entitled The Fatal River (1931)
Gaither is most renowned, however, for her trinity of novels for adult readers about American slavery—Follow the Drinking Gourd (1940), The Red Cock Crows (1944), and Double Muscadine (1949). While long out of print, the second of these works is probably Gaither’s most significant work—a dramatic tale of a slave rebellion based on historical events in Hinds County, Mississippi in 1835.
Married Rice Gaither, April.