Ruby Jean Jensen (1927–2010)

Ruby Jean Jensen was a renowned writer of paperback horror novels, and she was especially known for stories centered upon “evil dolls” or “creepy children.” Her titles included The Girl Who Didn’t Die (1975) and Child of Satan House (1978). She was well known as a mainstay of Zebra Books, an imprint of Kensington Publishing Corp. famous for its pulp horror. She published her first book with Zebra Books, MaMa, in 1983, and her final one, Night Thunder, in 1995.

Ruby Jean Hendrickson was born on March 1, 1927, in the community of White Rock in McDonald County, Missouri, to James and Gretchen Hendrickson. The 1930 census lists her father as being a carpenter. She had one sister who died at birth. She was still living in Missouri by 1935, but by 1940 the family had relocated to Red Bluff in Tehama County, California, living on a farm with her mother’s parents, Joe and Sarah Schell, and her mother’s brother Clive and his family. There, Ruby developed a passion for reading and writing while staying indoors in the rainy region.

While in California, she met and married Vaughn Jensen. By 1950, they had settled on a farm in Prairie Creek Township of Merrick County, Nebraska, but they later relocated to Rogers (Benton County), where they lived the rest of their lives. While in Nebraska, Ruby Jensen had read through most of the collection of the local library and again took to writing as a means of relieving her boredom. She recalled later that, after finishing a book manuscript about an interracial relationship during the Civil War, she went to the local library and selected at random a book published by Simon & Schuster; taking the address of the publisher, she sent them the manuscript and received in response a personalized letter of rejection, but one encouraging her further efforts. After relocating to Arkansas, she made the acquaintance of an English professor at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County), who offered further critique and encouragement.

Jensen broke into the literary world by first selling fictional “confession” stories to various magazines. She later connected with New York–based literary agent Marcia Amsterdam and published her first book, the occult Gothic romance The House That Samael Built, in 1974 with Warner Paperback Library. After publishing four books with Warner, she published three with Manor Books, one with Leisure Books (under the name R. J. Hendrickson), and two with TOR Books, including The Lake (1983). Published under the name R. J. Jensen, The Lake is her only book set in Arkansas. It centers upon a resort in the Ozark Mountains, at the heart of which is an artificial lake that is home to an ancient creature that consumes a number of people throughout the course of the story.

Starting in 1983, Jensen became a regular with Zebra Books, eventually publishing twenty books with the company, including many of the doll-themed horror novels for which she is best known, such as MaMa (1983), Annabelle (1987), and Baby Dolly (1991). Her final book was Night Thunder (1995), in which the bulldozing of an old sycamore tree for suburban growth (specifically, the construction of a new mall) unearths the graves of cult members murdered back in 1865, at the tail end of the Civil War.

By the time she published her final book, more than two million copies of her works were in print. Many of her books have since become collector’s items, considered part of a golden age of horror fiction that includes Stephen King and V. C. Andrews. Some of her books have been reprinted.

Jensen died on November 16, 2010, in Fayetteville and is buried in Pea Ridge Cemetery in Pea Ridge (Benton County). She was survived by her adopted daughter.

For additional information:
“Ruby Jean Hendrickson Jensen.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61904674/ruby-jean-jensen (accessed July 25, 2024).

Ruby Jean Jensen Official Website. https://rubyjeanjensen.com/ (accessed July 25, 2024).

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas