Jerry L. Minshall is a native of Kirksville, Missouri, the son of a country preacher, and a graduate of Truman State University.  The farm house where he was born and raised was eight miles from the main line of the Santa Fe Railway, which accounts for the historic American streamliners roaring through his novels.  He grew up with the radio as a constant companion, and discovered southern gospel, country, and cowboy music.

At Hazel Green, his one-room country school house, he saw his first World Book Encyclopedia..and fell in love with American history, also a part of his novels.  And at Kirksville’s Sojourner’s Library he fell in love with books in general.

Minshall is a former schoolteacher, songwriter, and professional singer. He lives with his beautiful wife Jan, in Nashville, Tennessee.  (She is the inspiration for the romance in his books).  They have three children and six grandchildren.