Ruby Jean Jensen was a renowned writer of paperback horror novels known particularly 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, Mo., to James and Gretchen Hendrickson. The 1930 census lists her father as being a carpenter. She had a sister who died at birth. She was still living in Missouri by 1935, but by 1940 the family had moved to Red Bluff in Tehama County, Calif. Living on a farm with her mother’s parents, Joe and Sarah Schell, and her mother’s brother Clive and his family, 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, Neb., but they later moved to Rogers, 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 moving to Arkansas, she made the acquaintance of an English professor at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 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. The story centers upon Dirk Inglesol of Dallas, who buys the old Loch Dawngere resort in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas. The resort was built in the 1920s, failed during the Great Depression and was bought by someone after World War II, with the manmade lake created at that time. Dirk is suspicious about the low price being asked for the property, but he buys it with the hope that his three children will enjoy being there, and that his estranged wife, Patricia, might come back to him.
However, it turns out that the artificial lake at the heart of the resort is home to an ancient creature that consumes a number of people throughout the course of the story. Dirk and his family struggle to find a way to prove the existence of this ancient evil to authorities — and then to destroy it.
Starting in 1983, Jensen became a regular with Zebra Books, eventually publishing 20 books with the company, including many of the doll-theme horror novels for which she is best known, such as “Annabelle” (1987) and “Baby Dolly” (1991). (Despite also centering upon a doll, the 2014 horror movie “Annabelle” has no connection to Jensen’s novel.) 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.
Jensen died on Nov. 16, 2010, in Fayetteville and is buried in Pea Ridge Cemetery in Pea Ridge. She was survived by her adopted daughter. By the time she published her final book, more than two million copies of her works were in print. Some of her books have since been reprinted, and many of the original paperbacks have become collector’s items, considered part of a golden age of horror fiction that includes Stephen King and V.C. Andrews. — Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas
This story is adapted by Guy Lancaster from the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a project of the Central Arkansas Library System. Visit the site at encyclopediaofarkansas.net.
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