Bonnie Smith

The Soul of Frannie Cooper Bonnie Smith

The Soul of Frannie Cooper is a true story, drawn from the documents of history. In 1894, with Idaho a new and tempestuous state, Frannie's conflict-ridden husband, John Hurst, shot a man in the back and killed him. Knowing the community was on the verge of hanging John, Frannie admitted to infidelity in a court of law. That lie destroyed her reputation and severed the most precious bonds a woman will ever forge-the bonds with her children. Mormon Church records say Frannie was born in 1864 in a Cache Valley settlement north of Salt Lake City. Within a few years, gossipers began questioning whether the dark eyed beauty was a true daughter of the LDS family which raised her. She may have been the half-breed child of a Scotsman fur trapper and his Indian mistress. But Frannie never doubted her family heritage, nor did she lose her resolve to fight for her children-and a man to love them all.